


Where There's a Wind There's a Way

by can_i_get_a_hooya



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Avatar Hinata, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired by Avatar: The Last Airbender, M/M, Slow Burn, Tendou has sparky-sparky-boom-man powers, This takes place in the world but has an entirely different plot, Waterbender Kageyama, You don't actually have to know ATLA to understand this fic, hinata is baby, two idiots one braincell the fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:00:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 28,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24992719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/can_i_get_a_hooya/pseuds/can_i_get_a_hooya
Summary: Hinata Shouyou was a normal, airbender teen. Nothing special. But when his home town is burned to the ground and he barely escapes with his life, he's forced to learn new things about himself, learn more about the abilities he has and face the reality that is being the world's next Avatar.All the while Washijo the conqueror is spreading his armies throughout the earth kingdom by use of his elite team- Shiratorizawa. A group of highly trained, terrifying benders Washijo raised himself, they're taking the world, city by city, sending shivers down the spines of anyone who hears of them. When their forces do nothing but grow, it's clear that someone will have to stop them.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Hinata Shouyou/Kageyama Tobio, Sawamura Daichi/Sugawara Koushi, Tendou Satori/Ushijima Wakatoshi
Comments: 9
Kudos: 67





	1. New beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Fun fact this fic was started two years ago, but I've decided to breath some life into it. Again- you don't need to have seen Avatar to understand it, but it will be riddled with references to the original series. A lot of credit to @skyfyrecity ! My partner in all things crime. She and I came up with this au together. Plz check out her fics too!

A deep crack sounded as the earth began to split around the small village, and lava, bubbling and hot rose out of the crevices guided by the subtle, but accurate movements of the earth bender as he flooded the village with molten rock. His name was Ushijima Wakatoshi, a man feared across the land for his brutal destruction of any civilization, no matter how big or small, that did not turn its loyalty over to Washijo the Conqueror.  
His partner, in his devastating duties, was an advanced fire bender named Tendou. Tendou was marked with an eerie eye on his forehead, signifying his abilities to cause explosions with his mind. The two worked expertly together, Ushijima isolating their target, being anything from a small group of tents, to massive cities, and coaxing lava over everything, while Tendou wrecked havoc by causing massive explosions all over the place, herding people to wherever they were trying to get them.  
So here they were again, violently displaying their talents on the small, rebel town.  
Same as usual.  
Though this time, it wasn't.  
Ushijima's hawk eyes traveled over the land, searching for holes in his unstoppable wave of lava he drenched houses in, when he spotted someone. It was a small girl, with fiery orange hair that was bunched into short pigtails, round, brown eyes that were widened in fright. And Ushijima felt his heart stop. He was destroying this girl's life, her home, everything she had ever known was crumbling before her, because of him. He saw her shout something, as she fled from the oncoming wall of lava, the fear and pain evident in her face. And as he watched, he realized she was trapped. Stuck between lava, and a burning building. It might have even been her old house. So, he acted. Digging his foot into the ground, he began to raise a bridge before her, one that would take her over the burning lava and out, far out of the destruction site.

"RUN!" he shouted, raising his voice for one of the few times in his life, "I can't hold this forever, GO!"

She did not hesitate and scampered across the bridge, all the way to the forest on the outskirts of the village, to where she was safe.

Ushijima knew she was a rebel, he knew she would grow up to oppose the man he worked for, but he couldn't help but feel slightly comforted knowing she was out of danger. He turned his attention back to his prey, causing a spit of lava to act like a whip against the main building in the center.  
In moments, all that was left of the once tall standing town was ashes and cracked earth.  
*. *. *  
When Ushijima and Tendou left the wreck of a town, their job done, they left believing none had escaped except for the small girl. They were wrong, however. The girl's older brother, Hinata Shouyou, now found himself on the sharp hillside, next to what once was his home.  
He was an airbender, and had been training to learn to bend since he was little. It was the most wonderful element, and he was incredibly comfortable with it. Though something had happened in the recent events that made him question if he was just a regular air bender. Hearing the earth splitting and seeing explosions come, Hinata had made an air scooter, and had flown around attempting to get others to safety, using air blasts to create a pathway out. But at one point, an unexpected explosion happened directly next to him, and out of reflexes, he made a move to block it. He certainly hadn't air bent, but at that moment, the fire curled away from him in the direction he had thrust his arm, almost as if bent by his will. How could that have happened? But this phenomenon was not the first thing on his mind at the moment.

Hinata kicked a scorched rock gently, with much less gusto than he would usually, while walking in the neighboring area to the once-was town in search of  
any other survivors. He remembered he had had a small clan of escapees with him during the attack that had nearly all escaped, but the explosion that he (possibly??) fire bent had caused them all to separate, and he knew not if any others had made it out. He had spent a good day and a half looking.  
But now he was hungry, his head and chest felt heavy with hardship. He took a long look at a small patch of grass in front of him.  
Grass was edible, right?  
Horses ate it.  
But didn't they have four stomachs so they could digest it?  
Maybe he should just stick with bark.  
Ick, scorched, black, bark.  
Never mind.  
Grass it was.  
He also used grass to create a padded ground for him when sunset was nearing, and used dry grass to create a fire. Though it was still pretty wet and didn't light well. Remembering how he blocked the explosion he tried to coax on the flames, and to his surprise, it worked. He was too shocked to really question it, however.  
He laid down, feeling numb, his brain unable to comprehend everything he had just lost, his stomach hurting. He blamed the grass as his eyes began to slip shut.

* *. *

"DAICHI! Over here!! I found one!"

Hinata blinked awake, his eyes adjusting to the light of day slowly. He looked around and saw a man with silver hair and a small mole near his eye. The man looked at him, and seeing he was awake, his face broke into a gentle, caring smile, almost mother like.

"Were you from here?"

His voice was sweet and soft as he gestured to the ruins of the town.  
Hinata nodded, his jaw felt stuck, he doubted he could talk if he tried.  
And next thing he knew he was getting hugged by the silver haired man. He allowed it, it was comforting, filled with so much love and compassion, he let it just hold the burden of his life for a moment.

A different, equally compassionate hand landed on his shoulder and he looked up to see a separate man, with short brown hair and a square jaw. He smiled down at Hinata, before he spoke.

"I'm Daichi, this is Sugawara. We are the founders of Karasuno, a group of rebels who have lost their homes to Washijo. We go around after attacks looking for survivors. Would you like to join our crew, son?"

Hinata felt his head move in a nod, though he barely felt like he moved it at all.

"We are constantly on the move so Washijo can't get us," Sugawara said, "but don't worry, I promise the tents are comfortable."

They began to lead him back to their current base, but Hinata reached out and grabbed the back of Daichi's shirt.

"W-wait," he stammered, his voice shaking from trauma, the two looked at him in surprise, "M-my sister. I-I think I saw her escape..?"

He saw Suga and Daichi share a worried glance.

"We've been wandering around here for quite a while and I think we would have found anyone who would've been nearby," Suga said, but after seeing Hinata's shoulders slump he quickly added, "But we could look again! I'm sure we could have missed some spots, um, which direction do you think she might have gone?"

Hinata clearly could see a grave expression on Daichi's face, and though he seemed skeptical, Daichi did agree to search with them for one last time.

But, when the sun began to climb the ladder that is a periwinkle sky, the elder two agreed that they should be getting back to camp in time for a meal and to freshen Hinata up. Each with a hand on one of Hinata's shoulders they walked him back, over the hills and to wherever this ''camp" thing was.

"Are you a bender, Hinata?" Daichi asked after a good ten minutes of solid silence and walking, "At Karasuno we like to help teach our younger members bending, so they can get better at it too. We often have competitions between teams we make."

Hinata already was an extremely good airbender, in fact, he was so good that his master tattooing ceremony was to be tomorrow, or at least, was meant to have been tomorrow.  
Wait, that didn't make sense.  
Was supposed to be tomorrow?  
Ugh he was to tired to care about grammar.  
But then, he remembered the feeling of the fire curling away from him when he had been in the invasion, he remembered growing the flames on the pathetic little camp fire he had made last night. If he was in fact an airbender and a fire bender (which still didn't make sense, but again, his numb brain decided not to question it) it couldn't hurt to train up some fire bending skills.

"Fi-fire bender." He was surprised at how much his voice still shook,considering the invasion had been near 42 hours ago.

"We don't have many of those," Sugawara stated, "I mean, there's Nishinoya and Tsukishima, but seeing as Wasijo hasn't invaded the fire nation yet they're rare among us rebels. Daichi is an earth bender by the way, I'm a water bender. Speaking of it, would you like some more?"

He held out a water canteen.

"Th-thanks Sugawara," he was feeling better enough to at least try and talk now.

"You can just call me Suga" he said with a smile that crinkled the edges of his eyes.

"We've arrived, you two," Daichi said, "Welcome, Hinata, to camp Karasuno."

They were in a pretty barren Mesa with dark red rocks and sheering cliffs. In a small dip of land, there was a collection of tents, several camp fires, and many rowdy teenagers running amok. A twisting river road it's way around the camp, and as he watched, he saw a boy with jet black hair gently collecting water out of it into a bunch of canteens by use of bending.  
He saw a bald boy expertly bending and shooting rocks at a smaller boy with spiked black hair with a blonde streak, who quickly dodged them while shooting flames out of his mouth.

It was set in a good place, you could see for miles out to the west, and the sheer cliffs were at such an angle that you could see anything on them. No possible way for sneak attacks. Hinata remembers vaguely thinking this wouldn't be the worst home in the world.

"GUYS!" Suga called, "We have a new member!"

"YEAH! Welcome shorty!" The spiky haired, blonde streaked, fire bender called.

"You are one to talk, Nishinoya," A tall blonde with glasses stated. He gave Hinata a sharp jerk of his neck, which he supposed was a nod in greeting.

"Welcome!" The bald earth bender loosely dropped an arm around his numb shoulders, "Ready for the wild life that is camp karasuno!?"

"Tanaka go easy on him," Suga snapped.

Hinata shrugged at Suga to indicate it was ok with him. Daichi turned to the tall blonde that Hinata later learned was named Tsukishima.

"Have Asahi or Kiyoko returned yet?"

"Not yet," Tsukishima said, "They said they would return around lunch though."

Daichi nodded, "I hope they were careful. For all we know there could be a few straggling soldiers around. And as the invasion was so soon ago, I'm sure Washijo's back-up troops could still be nearby, oh, I hope they didn't just wander into the troop's camp, I wouldn't put it passed Asahi to do that-"

"Daichi!" Suga snapped, "You're worrying yourself into a hole. I'm sure they're fine, they've left camp several times before."

"Hah, I'm worrying MYself into a hole, like you've never done that before Suga-"

"ANYWAY let's show Hinata around," Suga cut Daichi off, but Hinata did not miss the playful wink he sent Daichi's way.

"These are the sleeping tents, we tend to sleep with people near our age," Suga began, "I'm going to assume you are around fifteen? Good, then you can share a tent with Kageyama." He leaned right close to Hinata's ear and whispered, "Though be careful around him. He had been traveling with some water benders to help fight in the war, but they were attacked and he's the only one we know of who escaped. He's been, um, rather grouchy ever since the incident. But I'm sure he has a nice side, don't worry."

As he spoke the black haired teenager (who happened to be Kageyama) by the river side looked up, his mouth in a dark frown and eyes glaring dangerously over at Hinata. Hinata proceeded to make a terrified squeal and back up several steps. Tanaka cackled.

"Don't worry young Hinata," he said, drawing himself up proudly, "I, Tanaka, the great earth bender, shall protect you."

"Shouldn't you be protecting him from the outside enemy, rather than our own reinforcements?" Daichi asked, clearly actually confused.

"Just let him have his moment Daichi. Come with me Hinata." Suga said, "Wouldn't you like a nice bath, some food and a massage? I know Tsukishima is particularly good at foot massages, he just doesn't like giving them."  
Tsukishima appeared to wilt at these words.

"But I make him do it for all the newcomers anyway," Suga continued, unperturbed, "After what you've been through, you deserve the best."

In moments he had taken a nice bath in a pool beside the river (Nishinoya had heated it up for him) , been given an excellent meal of fish that Chikara and Yamaguchi had caught, and gotten a foot rub from an extremely disgusted and unamused Tsukishima.  
He felt the tension slowly leaving his shoulders from the constant fondness everyone gave him, the care they had, it was almost like having a new family.  
In fact, he was laughing and talking enthusiastically to Nishinoya by the end of the day.  
The only person he was slightly concerned about happened to be his new roommate.  
Kageyama.  
Just the way he walked sent shivers down his spine.  
The way he glared at any one who walked passed with his slender blue eyes, oh man was he SCARY.  
And to his dismay, the two had to sit next to each other for dinner.  
In the evenings, all the members of Karasuno gathered around a decently large campfire, eating small game and few vegetables that could be scrounged from the surrounding area. Though for such a large group, they ate well.  
But Hinata's current concern was the mean, tall, dark figure that silently slurped slug soup beside him. He had to at least try to become the boy's friend. They were going to sleep in the same tent in only a few hours.

"Sooooooo," Hinata began. Kageyama flat out ignored him. "Hey, I'm talking to you!"

Kageyama just kept slurping.

"Hellloooooooooooo!?" He waved his hands around wildly before Kageyama's face.

Kageyama finally turned to look at him, but it was with a look of daggers.  
His eyes scrunched angrily and intensely glaring at Hinata.  
Hinata made a sound that distantly sounded like a dying sheep, before quickly sliding as close he could to Noya (who hadn't been expecting it and may have dropped a small slug into Tanakas lap, who did nothing short of shrieking).  
Kageyama then resumed his eating while avoiding everyone's gaze.  
And oh man did that make Hinata mad.  
These people were being kind and helping Kageyama when he was in a dark place, and to thank them he's just gonna act snooty and mean??  
He crossed his arms and sat a little higher up with glaring out of the corner of his eye at Kageyama, who either didn't notice or just was ignoring him again.  
Ugh! This guy was so rude!!

His thoughts were interrupted by Nishinoya jumping up and pointing at the cliffs.

"Look!" He shouted gleefully, "They're back! And they found someone!"

Hinata looked up and saw a beautiful, slender woman, with shoulder length black hair walking towards the camp with a tall, nothing short of terrifying (in appearance anyway) man with long brown hair tied into a bun. They were supporting a small girl with blonde hair who was shaking so much she could hardly stand.

"Told you they weren't going to walk into an enemy camp," Suga said rolling his eyes. Though seeing the small girl his eyes lit up in excitement, "Hinata!" He cried, "Is that your sister?"

"No...." Hinata answered quietly, "But I do recognize her, I think we may have gone to school together...." His voice kind of trailed off.

"Everyone," the beautiful, black haired woman said (Hinata was soon to learn her name was Kiyoko), "This is Yachi, non bender, from the village that just was attacked."  
She spotted Hinata. "See?" She gently said to Yachi, "Not everyone you knew is gone. I'm sure you might know this young man."

Yachi looked fearfully up at Hinata, and, recognizing him, ran forward and gave him a hug. Hinata thought he saw Kageyama's expression soften. Maybe he was capable of kind emotions after all.

"Woah there girl," Hinata said, hugging Yachi back, "It's gonna be ok. These are good people. At least most of them are," he added, "We'll be able to move on and start a new life here, how does that sound?"  
*

Sun had set over camp Karasuno, bathing the small assortment of tents in an orangey yellow glow, and fading gently into an ombré purple blue.  
Yachi had received the same treatment as Hinata; a warm bath, tour, and foot massage (Tsukishima could be heard grumbling grouchily about how he had to massage two peoples feet in one day), and it was deemed time for everyone to settle into beds.  
The older members had a watch shift established, but the other members, particularly the more recent ones, just got to sleep the whole night.

Kageyama silently got ready for bed, still resolutely ignoring Hinata as they washed up and brushed their teeth.  
Kiyoko and Yachi could be seen giggling together while they brushed each other's hair (Tanaka and Noya had put their hands in praying position while admiring the beauty of the two) as Tsuki ran around heating the water in the old wash barrels expertly with his breath.  
Hinata decided to still keep it a secret that he could also air bend seeing as he was not sure how they would all react to him bending more than one element.  
He still was not quite sure how he could, but oh well, he was probably just born lucky.

He and Kageyama walked to their tent; it was small and cozy, made out of stretched out bear skin, with soft, warm, rabbit fur blankets on the inside.  
Kageyama promptly grabbed his blanket and pillows, brought it as far as he could to the other side of the tent, and curled up, back turned to Hinata.  
Hinata, mainly out of spite, also proceeded to move his stuff so there was a massive space between them.  
He was a little squished into the side of the tent, and a small draft wove its way under the tent, chilling his bones, but was he going to show this Kageyama guy that he was weak?  
No way.  
So he determinedly stayed on the other side of the tent, no matter how uncomfortable it was.  
Shortly, exhaustion took over his body and mind, and he fell into a deep, restful sleep.

It was not long, however, that he found himself awake again.

It was still dark, and he was guessing he had fallen asleep hardly even an hour ago. He looked around, pondering what had woken him so quickly.  
Could it have been the draft from under the tent?  
No.  
Was something going on outside?  
No.  
But then he heard it, soft shaky breaths, sniffles, and repressed sobs.  
He turned around slowly and carefully in his rabbit blankets.  
Despite the darkness, he could see Kageyama shaking, the sobs obviously coming from him.

Mr. I have no emotions other than pure anger, was crying softly in front of him.  
Hinata supposed he should go comfort the man, but he felt his help would not be appreciated.  
So he just kind of awkwardly watched as Kageyama cried to himself, unaware that Hinata was awake.  
After a good ten minutes his shaking subsided, the sobs quieted, his breath evened slightly, and Hinata could tell Kageyama had fallen asleep.  
He himself then turned back over to go to sleep, unsure of what to think.  
*

"WAKE UP SLEEPY HEADS!" Nishinoya shouted as the sun barely peaked over the cliffs the next morning, "RISE AND SHINE!"

He was running from tent to tent, a bronze pot in one hand and a hard wood spoon in the other, banging them together to create the most utterly horrific alarm. Hinata groaned and rolled over. Why did they all get up so early?

He saw Kageyama had not moved except for to wrap his pillow around his head to dampen the noise.

"COME ON GET UP,  
AND GIVE ME A SUP!  
IM TRYING TO RAP  
BUT IT SOUNDS LIKE CRAP,  
THE MORNING'S HERE,  
YOU GOT NOTHING TO FEAR,  
SO GET OUT OF BED  
OR YOU'LL BE DEAD!"

Kageyama made a loud "aarg" sound, chucked his blankets off of him, leaving the tent without even glancing at Hinata.  
Hinata clenched his fists as he followed the boy outside.  
Kageyama really made him mad.

The two emerged to see Nishinoya had a choreographed dance to go with his wake up call; he was spinning and leaping whilst banging the pot to the beat.

"UWOAH!" Hinata cried, "That's so cool Nishinoya-senpai!!"

Noya laughed. "Only the strongest senpai's can do this!" He shouted.

Hinata jumped on the balls of his feet excitedly. "Teach me how to do it!"

The next few minutes compiled of the two dancing and (trying to) rap, while the other members groggily came out, rubbing their eyes sleepily.

"Good morning," Suga yawned, "Hope you all slept well. Who wants to be on breakfast duty?"

"OOO me!" Hinata waved his hand in the air, "Wait, what is breakfast duty?"

"It's where we bravely hunt in the dangerous wilderness for food!" Tanaka exclaimed, "I'm particularly good at facing the dangers out there."

"It's really not that exciting," Enoshita said with the expression of someone who had put up with Tanaka's exaggerations one too many times, "Plus you forgot the part where someone has to cook."

"Yeah but before the cooking we get the great adventure that is a hunt."

"Well great hunter," Suga cut in, "We are pretty stocked up on meat so this time you'll just be getting the vegetarian side of our meals. Now go do it and bring Kageyama. It's his turn to join you. Hinata, Yachi, I'm going to tell you the schedule of how we do things here."

"Schedule?" Hinata asked as Tanaka and Kageyama packed up and left to get food.

"Yeah," Suga said, "We have so many people here that we have a schedule to keep things operating smoothly. For example," he indicated to Nishinoya who was still dancing with the pot, "Every morning starts with a wake up call. Each day a different person is assigned to it. Today it was Noya, tomorrow it'll be Tanaka. Then we have breakfast duty, again, people take turns to do that, and also cooking duty. After that we all eat, and then do some training before lunch. After lunch we have little fun bending competitions that some people do while the others cook, wash clothes, etcetera. Finally we eat dinner and then go to bed. Understand?"

Hinata stared at him with a blank expression. Man that was a lot to take in.

Suga giggled kindly, "It's a lot to take at first but I'm sure you'll get used to it," he said with a bright smile.

Kageyama and Tanaka returned a few moments later with several spiny, weird looking leaves that caused Hinata to vaguely wonder if they were edible, before Tsukishima and Enoshita cooked them into a nice stir fry.  
They all sat around the fire and ate again (Hinata thought the stir fry definitely tasted better than the slug soup from last night) before it was time for something Suga had called "training".

As they finished their meal Daichi looked at Hinata and Yachi.

"So, Hinata you are a beginning fire bender, correct?"

"Yes sir!" Hinata saluted him. Daichi nodded.

"Good. Then for training today I'm going to have you go with Tsukishima and Nishinoya Tsukishima is reasonably new to fire bending too, so Noya will help teach you the basics. Yachi, you can go with Kiyoko who'll teach you some archery. For the rest of you, same procedures as usual."

They all got up going to various open areas in the camp. Noya quickly ran up behind Hinata and Tsukishima.

"Ready to learn from the greatest fire bender there ever was!?" He shouted gleefully.

"GWAA YES I DO!" Hinata exclaimed. Tsukishima merely pushed up his glasses looking intensely bored.

"So how much do you know about fire bending, young Hinata?" Noya inquired.

Hinata hung his head, "Hardly any..."

"Then never fear! Starting from the ground up is the best way to learn! And eventually, you will learn how to do my special move."

"OOO what's your special move Nishinoya!!??"

Noya looked at him with a mischievous look.  
"Stand back," he said.

Tsukishima and Hinata quickly backed away while Noya positioned himself.

"Rooooooolllliiiinnnggg........." He began,

"THUNDER!!!!!!!!!" The boy rolled expertly on the ground before pointing his first two fingers at the sky and bringing them down. As he did, a long, twisting spiral of lightning followed his directions and hit the earth, causing it to shake ominously.

"UwOAHHHH!!!!!" Hinata cried, "TEACH ME HOW TO DO THE ROLLING THUNDER!!!"

"Stop showing off Noya!" Tanaka called at him from the other side of several tents, "Less talk, more work!"

"I was, um, demonstrating!" Noya shouted back, "Any way, let's start with the basics. Stances."

Nishinoya showed them how to stand, legs out wide, knees bent, just overlooking the toes.

"This is a basic fire bending stance," he said, "Your feet solidly on the ground. With fire bending, having strong footing is key. If you don't, you'll just quickly get knocked over."

Hinata watched him, checking his feet carefully. Tsukishima lazily followed the directions.

"Ok good, now, we're going to move into a basic attack form." he elegantly moved his foot and body so he was upright on one leg, bringing his arm up into the air.

"This is how all fire benders start a duel. By crossing arms at the wrist with your opponent. But after that, you choose how to move."

Hinata followed him, stumbling a bit. Nishinoya looked at him with a pondering look, before going over and moving his legs into the right place.

"You're too light on your feet," he said, "You need to have a more grounded stance so you can't get pushed around."

Now Hinata found this extremely difficult. Having been an air bender, he was skilled in quickly jumping from place to place, rather than solidly facing whatever was before him. They repeated those steps several times until Hinata and Tsukishima were comfortable.

"Ok well done, " Noya said, "Now the next important thing about fire bending is self control. If you have none, the fire will spread out of your control and burn everything around you. So I'm going to make you guys meditate for a while."

"What about actually working with fire?" Tsukishima asked. Hinata nodded, he was really interested to see what it was like to bend actual fire.

"Only after you've mastered basic stances and self control," Noya said, "I promise you, you don't want to accidentally burn anything. Now find a rock and sit down, and try to keep your mind clear for at least ten minutes."

This, Hinata found, was even more difficult than keeping a firm posture. The moment he sat down his mind began racing, thinking of what it was like to bend fire, what they were going to have for lunch, how much Kageyama annoyed him, what it would be like to do the rolling thunder thing-

"Keep it blank," he whispered to himself, "Don't think of anything."

Ugh he couldn't do it. He opened his eyes just ever so slightly. He could see Noya meditating with them, face blank, perfectly still, almost as if he was asleep. He saw Tsukishima's face move slightly in agitation, he could tell Tsuki was having difficulty too. Well, a least he wasn't the only one.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see other members training. He saw Suga and Kageyama almost playing catch with a blob of water, bending it back and forth to each other, trying to keep it from falling apart or splashing each other.  
He saw Tanaka and Daichi chasing each other around, chucking massive boulders at each other.  
Man that looked so fun.  
And all he could do was sit on this gosh darn rock.

"Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinata," Nishinoya said.  
Hinata jumped and looked around.

"I see you peeking," he said with a snigger, "Don't worry, I know how hard it is at first, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it."

Hinata nodded and closed his eyes again, willing his mind to stay blank. It surprised him at how hard this was, seeing as meditation is important in air bending too.  
He knew he was good at meditating, but something was keeping him from doing it successfully.  
He tried to let go of worries on why it wasn't working, and just keep it blank again.  
But then images, flashing past, obscured his vision.  
Images of fire climbing up his old house, images of people he knew, scattering in fear as lava bubbled around, submerging his old home.  
And the image, the image of Ushijima's face; stoic and emotionless, as he brought horror into so many people's lives, destroying, hurting.

He gasped, opening his eyes, fear crawling over him, sweat forming on his brow. He saw Noya and Tsukishima look at him curiously.

But just then, Asahi banged on the bronze pot that Noya had used earlier. Hinata was extremely grateful for the distraction.  
"L-LUNCH!" Asahi called, squeaking at how loud the pot was.  
*

Ba sing sae, the great capital of the earth kingdom, filled to the brim with busy people, soldiers, and Washijo's recruits, as this was their base.  
Washijo had claim over almost the entire earth kingdom at this point, save for a few straggler towns towards the far north, but now it was time for him to think of conquering lands beyond the mainland of earth.  
He sat, currently, upon a massive, and incredibly detailed throne of stone Ushijima had crafted him, in an underground tunnel system beneath the city, his fingers joined at the tips as he looked down upon a map of the four nations.  
Before him sat the terror duo themselves, Ushijima and Tendou.

"We're going to bridge out to the fire nation," Washijo stated. He saw the two younger benders looking at him with rapt attention. "We will offer them an alliance, it is unlikely they will refuse. The fire lord has seen what power you two hold, and will no doubt agree to join us, for he knows you could destroy the entire kingdom should you want. I will send a letter to him and when he agrees you must travel and become his 'bodyguards', though in reality you will keep him in control. We can't have him trying to use our resources or turn on us, can we?"

Tendou nodded in understanding, though Ushijima hesitated. Something in him felt unsure about this...  
"What, is there a problem Wakatoshi?" Washijo snapped dangerously.

"No sire," Ushijima bowed his head.  
Wasijo had been his military leader for so long, and he had always been told to trust your general no matter what. So he shook away those unsure feelings and put his mind to what Washijo continued to say.

"Your travel will be long, so you might as well start soon. I will send several earth troops with you to protect you on your journey and to move some of our's into the fire nation. Also, if you find any of those rebel camps along the way, take them out. I've heard Karasuno is ever growing, and I don't want them to be a threat. I expect you here and packed by tomorrow morning."

"But sire," Tendou piped up, "Why would you have us travel there tomorrow if we don't know if the fire nation agreed yet?"

"Because if they don't agree," Washijo's face broke into a dangerous smile, "You will take those troops and conquer the land through war. Win win situation."  
* *. *

Unaware of Washijo's plan, camp Karasuno had finished their lovely lunch and was moving onto the next part of their schedule.

"Now," Suga explained to Hinata and Yachi, "As I mentioned earlier, we have three on three bending competitions,"

"UWOAH really?!" Hinata jumped excitedly, "I wanna do a bending completion!"

Nishinoya laughed, "Hinata you hardly know how to bend at all, let alone be in a competition. Watch your senpai's do it for a while first."

"Plus," Suga added, "There is plenty of work we could use some help with. I'll do the laundry with you while we watch though,"

"Oh...." Hinata said, excitement quite dampened by this.

"Don't worry Hinata," Noya said, "I'll teach you all I know and you'll be doing competitions in no time!"

"Can you maybe explain the game...?" Hinata asked.

"Oh yeah of course!" Suga said, " Come with me,"

He took Hinata to a small open area in the center of the camp that was marked off by small rocks.

"Not the best field, I know, but Tanaka and Noya did their best on it," Suga remarked, "Ok so these rocks represent different zones. At the beginning of the game both teams start in the most for-front zones, so here," He stood in a small section surrounded by rocks. "There are three zones on each side. The goal is to use bending to push back the opposite team into farther back zones. Once you pass into a different zone, you can't go back and that zone is technically the other team's territory. The team with the most territory after the timer wins. Though you can also win by knocking everyone on the opposite team out of the field. Each team is made up of one fire bender, one earth bender, and one water bender. Though we often make exceptions so everyone can play."

"Soooo coooooooool," Hinata looked at the field longingly.

"It is, isn't it? Anyways anyone who isn't currently playing gets to do chores while they watch. And it looks like your on laundry duty young man, so get to it!"

Hinata begrudgingly grabbed a barrel and the pile of dirty laundry. He tried to take it as close to the field as he could so he could get a good look at it, and began scrubbing. Aw man, that looked so fun. He bet he could do a really good job at it if he was just air bending. He missed the games the air benders of his town used to play, he missed having air scooter races with his sister....  
But then, violently pulling him out of his thoughts, someone slammed into his side.

"Hey! Watch where you're going-" he cut off short when he realized it was Kageyama.

" More like you should watch where you're working because you're far too close to the playing field. Only talented benders are allowed in this area, meaning you have to back up," he snarled.

"I'm not that close to the field!" Hinata retorted, "Plus I'm a talented bender, so I'm totally allowed-"

"You're close enough that you'll get in the way," Kageyama cut him off, "And you are far from a talented bender, you could hardly meditate earlier this morning."

"Yeah, well you just have no appreciation for anyone other than yourself-"

"You just want attention-"

"You can't see past your stupid fat nose-"

"Woah woah woah, guys calm down!" Sugawara had returned, "This is not the time to fight! Hinata, back up, you are too close to the playing field. Kageyama, mind your own business and get to your team, we will be starting soon." He had a firm 'or else' look about him.

Kageyama spit out a 'whatever' before walking to his side of the field. Hinata seethingly pulled his laundry equipment back with him and began scrubbing with the washboard again, probably more forcefully than needed. He could see other members working on cooking, sewing, and all sorts of tedious chores while circled around the playing field, prepared to watch.

The two teams, it soon transpired, were Kageyama, Tanaka, and Asahi, versus Sugawara, Nishinoya, and Daichi. They each placed themselves in the first zone strategically, knees bent, faces contorted in concentration. Kiyoko, the referee, stood parallel to the center, a small, hand crafted, wooden whistle in her mouth. As he watched, she blew it, bringing her arm down in a vertical swing, signifying the start of the game.

The first thing Hinata noticed was Nishinoya's mad skills. He darted back and forth, spitting flames to chase the opposite team backwards, occasionally laying down lightning strikes on the earth before the players with the classic 'rolling thunder' call. He saw Tanaka try to launch Suga into the air by violently lifting the earth beneath him, but Suga retaliated with an expert backflip and slapped him in the stomach with a water whip. He saw Daichi throwing stones with immense power while dodging air blasts from Asahi. Their movements were all so calculated and graceful; Hinata was itching to join them and show them what he could do.

But then he saw Kageyama, and oh man was he good. The way he moved was almost as if he was water himself. He pulled back and forth, gathering as much as he could from the nearby stream, until, with a spinning motion, he launched it upon the opposite team. The miniature tidal wave successfully knocked Suga, Nishinoya, Tanaka and Asahi straight out of the third zone. For a moment, Hinata thought that one move had won the game. However, it turned out that since he accidentally took Asahi out with the other team, he was disqualified. After being told this, Kageyama rounded on Asahi.

"You were in the way! You have to run faster and move when I do that!!"

"I-I I'm so s-sorry!!" Asahi squeaked, terrified.

"Hey! It's not his fault!" Nishinoya exclaimed, "You just need to look out for your own team members!"

Kageyama ignored this and continued to glare at Asahi.

"Make sure," he said in a low growl, "You stay out of my way."

Asahi made a small, scared noise at this, Nishinoya put a comforting hand on him while angrily staring at Kageyama, who proceeded to walk back to the first zone, ready for the second round. There was a tense silence that followed, no one quite knew what to say. It was broken by Kiyoko blowing the whistle and instructing everyone to go back into positions.

The second game began, each player trying to push the other team back while Kageyama hovered behind everyone, gathering water to prepare for some special move he planned. Even though he was concentrating on gathering water, he was still expertly standing his ground, not even flinching when a lightning strike landed dangerously close to him. When he was done with his preparations, he signaled to his team to get out of the way. The other team braced themselves for a tidal wave. But he didn't give them a tidal wave. Instead, he surrounded them with the water on all sides, and with the body motion similar to stirring soup, caught the opposite team (plus Tanaka, who hadn't got out of the way of the water in time) into some kind of swirling water sphere, that he lifted with bending and launched out of the ring. It shattered when it hit the ground, leaving Suga, Nishinoya, Daichi and Tanaka on the earth, soaked to the bone and surrounded by puddles. Seeing as Tanaka had been launched out with them, their team was disqualified again.

"You have to run faster! What are you, a snail? I gave you plenty enough of a warning!" Kageyama shouted at Tanaka.

"I ran as fast as I could! You just moved the water on top of me! You could have maneuvered it around me, you know!"

"No, I couldn't have, it would have messed up the synchronicity. You just need to stop being a slug and move when you are told too!"

Tanaka stared at him with a mixture of anger and hurt, but Kageyama just turned on his heel and walked away.

The game was over now, seeing as Kageyama's team had lost two out of three games, so the players joined everyone else in doing the chores. Suga came over and corrected Hinata's hold on the washboard. Though as they went back to the normal schedule, there was a tense vibe all around. People kept glancing up, either nervously or angrily, at Kageyama, who, if he noticed it, showed no signs of knowing. It was oddly quiet, even though Suga tried his best to start conversations.


	2. Taking a turn (for the worse?)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Life continues as normal in camp Karasuno- but things are stirring in the shadows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sips mocha latte* so let's just get into some action right away huh bois  
> Also- planning on having this fic update weekly!

"You're not listening to me!" Kuroo Testuro, Prince of the fire nation, shouted. He was currently in the throne room before the fire lord, who had just received a letter from Washijo offering to make an alliance.

"If we surrender to Washijo-" Kuroo continued, pacing around anxiously,

"Then," his father interrupted, "None of our people will be hurt by them again. Our soldiers will not have to fight, and our people will no longer live in fear."

"Are you crazy!?" Kuroo's voice was nearing hysterical, "He will take our soldiers and use them to conquer other kingdoms, never letting them rest, he will take resources from our towns so the people become poor and hungry- how are you not seeing this?"

"You don't know that," the fire lord murmured in a deadly voice, "He could be very kind to our soldiers."

"He isn't to the earth kingdom soldiers. Ever since they turned to his side, he's ruthlessly and carelessly used their military. He will dispose of their troops like it's nothing!"

"The earth kingdom is great." His father spoke stubbornly, "They have a lot to spare."

"No, you're just scared that your great empire is going to fall and the history books will blame you. Either way we are getting off of the point," Kuroo said, wildly waving his hands, "I'm telling you don't do it and-"

"And I'm doing what is best for the people."

Kuroo glared at him.  
There was a pause.

"I am doing what is best for my people." His father repeated.

"Then we are on different sides." And with a turn of his heel, Kuroo left the throne room.  
*. *. *

Flashing Images, zooming past, up and down around Hinata's vision. Lava, burning and bubbling, explosions, and the face of Ushijima, flickering before him.  
He could feel the sweat on his face as he twitched back and forth in his sleep, as he remembered the panic of losing his home, his life.  
His parents came into view, Natsu, with her cute small pigtails and gentle face. He reached out to her, trying to grab her, to pull her back, but she faded away into darkness, into flames and lava.  
But then something else twisted its way into the nightmare.  
Imagery of a person Hinata had never seen before. He was short, with wild black hair that stood up in several directions, and with piercing blue eyes that were glowing bright white.  
The fears of Ushijima faded away as this person came into focus. There was something familiar about him. Almost as if Hinata had known him, almost as if he was Hinata (well, they were around the same height).  
The man reached out to him, extending a hand, as if he was trying to talk to Hinata, as if he had a message.  
But before he could hear what it was, he found himself being shaken awake.

Reality came back into focus as he found himself back in his and Kageyama's tent. The soft fur blankets around him, the small draft under the tent walls.  
He looked up to see who had woken him, but backed up defensively when he saw it was Kageyama.

"Why'd you wake me up!?" He said in an accusatory tone.

Kageyama backed away.  
"Um, you were twitching and saying things- I think you were having a nightmare..?"

"Yeah well you could at least let a man sleep couldn't you? Man you're so mean!"

He saw Kageyama look down at the floor. For a second he thought Kageyama was going to apologize, but then he shook himself, his resting bitch-face back, and snorted angrily.

"Fine." He snapped before turning away from Hinata and going back to his pile of blankets in the corner.

"Fine to what? Fine that you are the rudest person on earth?!" Hinata knew he was crossing into 'mean' territory, but he didn't care. Kageyama deserved it.

Kageyama merely shoved his pillows over his ears and ignored him. With a humph Hinata crossed his arms and turned away.

It had been a couple days since he had first arrived at camp Karasuno; since then, he had begun to learn the basics of fire bending (he still wasn't very good at it though), had been on breakfast duty once (he had been bitten by a furry creature that day and still had teeth marks in his feet), and without fail, heard Kageyama cry every night.  
He had not been able to enter the bending competitions yet, but Suga said he would be able to soon as he was improving quickly.  
He turned over to go back to sleep when he heard Daichi bang a pot, signifying it was morning.

"Everybody up! Asahi, Noya, you're on breakfast duty today-get to it! Also I will be traveling to the neighboring town to get supplies, who wants to come?"

"Ooo wait, I didn't know we could go to town?" Hinata said as he left the tent.

"At the end of every week we go to get supplies." A sleepy Suga answered him, "Daichi always has to wear a disguise, because we don't want someone to recognize him. Though you're pretty new, if you want to go with him I doubt you'd need to dress up."

It was later decided that Hinata and Yachi would join him. The three prepared to go, grabbing lunches and several worn down wooden wagons to carry whatever they bought.  
Daichi was, evidently, heavily disguised. He had creepily accurate facial hair that Noya had stuck to his face with dried slug mucus and a large sun hat to cover his hair. Other than that he was wearing reasonably typical robes.

"You two ready?"

"Yes sir!" Yachi and Hinata both answered. Daichi chuckled.

"There's no need to call me sir. Any way, if anyone asks, you," he pointed at Yachi, "Are Akane Sun, my first born daughter. Hinata, you are Yato Sun, my second born son. I am Shiro Sun, and we are earth bending civilians traveling north to visit your grandmother. It's unlikely people will suspect but better to have a decent cover story just in case. Understand?"

"Yes!" They answered, and began walking after Daichi.

"Also, where exactly are we going?" Hinata asked.

"And on the map," Yachi asked, "Where are we? I'm not entirely sure..."

"Our camp is currently in the far north of the Earth kingdom, on one of the peninsula's pointing towards the fire nation. Washijo technically has control over this area, but there aren't too many sentries and it isn't very strictly controlled. Even so, we are planning on traveling to the fire nation some point soon. The town we are headed to is just a couple miles north from here. Asahi discovered it a little while back when he was hunting."

They spent a while walking. At one point Hinata put Yachi in a wagon and pushed her around. Eventually, after maybe an hour and a half of walking, they saw a little earth bending village.

"UWOAh I've never been to an earth bending town before!" Hinata exclaimed.

He ran down and began expecting things, watching merchants that walked back and forth, calling out things such as "Get some free frog traps here!" Or "Deluxe rare goods from the other nations!"

Yachi, on the other hand, was hanging onto Daichi's arm and was cowering behind him.

Hinata touched various walls of houses, was intensely interested in some regular poles, and was excitedly running all over the place until a gruff voice said "What do you think you're doing kid?" Directly behind him.

He squeaked and turned around. A big, buff, earth bending soldier stared down at him. He also had a small badge on his chest with Washijo's emblem on it.

"I'm-I'm uh-"

"We're so sorry sir!" Daichi had run over with Yachi, "My son can be a little over excited, but he means no harm by it."

The guard stared at them for a bit.

"Very well," he said, "But keep him out of trouble old man."

"I will sir," Daichi answered. As the guard walked away Daichi grabbed onto Hinata's arm.  
"Stay close to me," he whispered in his ear.

The three eventually found their way to a small general store on the outskirts run by an ancient looking man. It was decently empty, but a few shady looking people were gathered in the back of the shop whispering to each other. Hinata saw Daichi glance over at them.

"Here, uh, Yato," Daichi said. It took Hinata a minute to realize he was talking to him.  
"Grab some laundry detergent, bear fat, rope, and some skin tanning materials. I'll be looking for stuff in the back." And with that he walked over to near where the shady people were gathered.

Daichi was excellent at stealth. The four years he had been on the run had taught him well. So it was with ease that he snuck his way around the group in the back, unnoticed, listening to their conversation carefully.

"-the fire nation agreed, I can't believe they would betray us all like that."

"It's not that surprising. It's common knowledge that the fire lord is a cowardly git. But what about his son? I remember hearing good things about him."

"Kuroo? I heard he left and started one of those rebel camp things, like Seijoh and Karasuno."

"Yeah I heard that too. What was it called? Nekoma?"

"Yeah yeah, I think it was."

"Well good luck to him, that's a pretty hard life."

"I know, I can't believe Seijoh and Karasuno have survived this long. Date-Tech and Wakutani South tried but they were totally decimated."

"Yeah. But look at the map. Washijo has both the earth kingdom, the fire nation, and the eastern air temple! And it's only been a few years!"

"Well the air temple and the fire nation just agreed to join him, so it's not that surprising."

"Yeah but it's still quite a feat."

Daichi slipped back to the front of the store. He had heard enough.  
It was soon that he, Hinata, and Yachi were leaving the store and heading back home, burdened with wagons full of various things, bags of flour and supplies draped over them.  
The walk back was evidently more difficult as they were so weighed down by stuff, and both Hinata and Yachi were entirely out of breath when they returned. Daichi, however, dropped his stuff and clapped his hands loudly.

"I'm calling a meeting!" He shouted, "We have news!"  
*. *. *

"So Washijo has control over the fire nation too?"

Camp Karasuno was spread out in the center of the camp, a massive map of the four nations in the center of the circle they formed.

"You do realize that this means the only places out of his control are the poles and the northern and southern air temples, right?" Tsukishima said.

"Yes." Daichi answered, "However since he is prioritizing speed over strength, there are areas that are not too securely protected in his realm and we might be able to survive by just moving periodically. Take here for example. This is his land, but we're still here. We just can't run to the fire nation for backup and safety anymore."

"Yeah, but it m-means we are more likely to be found, more outnumbered, we have n-no where safe to go, we'll just be running and running and chased until he hunts us down and-"

"Asahi! I know it's scary but you're just scaring yourself now." Noya intervened, "It won't be that different. What we did before was venture into his territory to rescue people and then back out to the safe areas. Now, we are just going to venture to more dangerous areas to save people and then back out to slightly more safe areas. Hardly any change at all."

Hinata wished he had Nishinoya's confidence. He knew that feeling of running and running and just being followed by Washijo. It had been what his family had done after they evacuated the Western air temple; going from town to town to try and get away from him.

"Wait! But if he has the fire nation now then that means he's going to want to move either some of his to the fire nation, or some of the fire nation to the earth kingdom," Tanaka said, "And that means that they will be traveling straight through where we are now!"

This had caused a bit of a panic through everyone. They were shifting positions nervously, some even casting weary glances towards the cliffs.

"We should pack up," Enoshita said, "Get everything out that we can!"

"I'll go p-pack the tents!" Asahi squeaked.

"I'll get the food!" Kinoshita added.

"I'll grab the rest!" Yamaguchi said.

"Everyone ENOUGH we are not going anywhere!" Suga shouted.

Asahi, Yamaguchi, and Kinoshita froze in their tracks.

"Listen," Suga continued, "Where we are now is the safest we will get. We are in a small canyon far away from the typical traveling routes. It's possible that Washijo's soldiers may stumble across us, but it would be far more likely if we were traveling because we'd definitely cross paths with them. Now, everyone, take a deep breath and try to calm down. Daichi and I will look for other reasonably safe places we will travel to by the end of the week, but for now we are staying here. Understand?"

Everyone nodded.

"Good! Now I think it's time we did something to lighten the mood," Sugawara continued, clapping his hands together, "How about one of those bending competitions? Hinata, why don't you join this time. Add a new variable to it, it'll be exciting!"

Suga's words certainly made a difference to the overall attitude of the camp. As Hinata watched, things were slowly going back to normal; Daichi and Nishinoya checking to make sure the field was correctly set up, Tanaka pouring over a small hand crafted bending statistics spreadsheet as he tried to devise the teams, Kiyoko telling Yachi about the game and teaching her how to referee.

But this time, Hinata was going to be able to participate! He could barely contain his excitement; well, he couldn't, as he was jumping up and down manically.  
He loved bending, and it had been so long since he had done anything fun with it. All it had been was breathing, meditating, and trying to keep a small flame from spreading to the bottom of a stick.  
But now, he could work with fire, he could feel the adrenaline again as he moved the element.  
Sure, he would have preferred to do air, but just being in some kind of competition made him happy enough.  
Plus, he still wanted to keep the fact that he could also air bend a secret. He wasn't sure why entirely, but he felt they might react strangely, and seeing as they were the only people he had now, he really didn't want them to hate him.

The teams were then decided; Yamaguchi (earth bender), Kageyama (water bender), and Tsukishima (fire bender) versus Tanaka (earth bender), Enoshita (water bender) and Hinata (fire bender).  
Hinata was ecstatic about being on a different team than Kageyama. It was time to show that boy what he deserved.

They began, each stationed in the first zone of the field, Hinata with his feet in the basic fire bending stance.  
As soon as Kiyoko blew the whistle, everyone jumped into action; Tsukishima sent a spit of flames at Enoshita who merely diffused it with water and used the remains to knock Tsukishima back, Yamaguchi cleverly knocked Tsukishima back forward with a stone so he never left the first zone. But then, seeing as he was paying attention to where Tsukishima was, Tanaka took the opportunity to shoot the ground below him up, so he fell into the second zone.

All the while, Kageyama was in the back, pulling more and more water from the river, collecting it into some massive sphere he was planning to attack with.  
Hinata watched him, whilst leaping back and forth to avoid attacks in the airbender way. Oh, how he missed the feeling of freedom, the floating sensation he got as he evaded and wove between stones, flames, and threads of water alike.  
Yamaguchi shot a massive boulder at him, but he merely jumped up and flew over it. After landing on the other side he shot a fire blast at Yamaguchi, effectively knocking him into the third zone. He gave a triumphant whoop before zooming quickly out of the way of some stray flame.

For a moment he saw Kageyama pause in his preparations, his face looked oddly more scrunched than usual, almost as if he was shocked. Kageyama then turned to Yamaguchi.

"Why is he moving so fast?! Why can he jump so high?!"

Hinata would have laughed at Kageyama's discomfort, but he had to get out of the way from an attack by Tsukishima. Once again, he zipped un-humanly out of the way, and he saw Kageyama look incredulously at him again.

It was then, however, that Kageyama decided he had enough water collected; in a sweeping motion, he sent it crashing over Hinata's team, pushing them left and then back.  
Immediately, Tanaka and Enoshita were caught in this unmovable wave, sent out of the field, but Hinata had jumped (and may have used a little air bending to gain some height) and stood, still in the second zone.  
And oh man was Kageyama mad. He could see the shock and anger on the other's face, as he shouted things such as "how is that possible" and "completely unreasonable" to Tsukishima and Yamaguchi, who still remained in the third zone.

For a moment, Hinata felt as if he had won the match, however, seeing as it was just him versus the other three, and since he knew how to evade, but was quite bad at attacking with fire, he quickly lost.  
But it felt like he won, seeing as Kageyama was storming and shouting angrily, having had his killer move be defeated.

They fixed the ring and prepared for a second match, Hinata quite gleeful at his success.  
Matter of fact, almost everyone in the camp was insanely proud of him, as no one else had ever managed to escape one of Kageyama's super big attacks before. Not even Asahi had, and he was an actual airbender.

Kiyoko blew the whistle and the second game began; this time Enoshita and Tanaka were attempting to focus on keeping Kageyama from preparing a special move. Unfortunately this was unsuccessful, as Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were decent at protecting him, and Kageyama merely used a bit of his collection of water to shoot frozen, sharp icicles at them.  
His reflexes were insane, his awareness unusually sharp; Hinata remembered thinking he must be a master water bender to be able to bend it that well.  
Well, jokes on him, Hinata was an undercover near-master air bender who could escape his crazy attacks.

As the game commenced, Hinata's team was gaining territory; Tsukishima and Yamaguchi had been knocked back pretty far, but Kageyama was still standing his ground.  
It was then that he used a special move again, completely decimating Enoshita and Tanaka.  
But Hinata, once again, leaped out of the way. He jumped straight from the center of the miniature whirlpool and landed before Kageyama, and with a 'hyaa!' sound shot a flame at him, intending to knock Kageyama back once and for all.  
However, only a few mere sparks flew out of his hand, unlike the amazing whip of flame he had imagined. He blinked down at his palm, confused.

Kageyama grinned.

"You may be good at escaping attacks, but you certainly are not good at giving them."

And with that he blasted Hinata out of the ring.

*. *. *

Suga sat upon a rock on top of one of the cliffs overlooking the camp, the moon illuminating his silver hair as it ascended into the fresh cobalt night sky. His legs were spread to the side gracefully, his arms propping himself up.  
This is where he came to cool down. To take a break, to think. It had been a day after Daichi had returned with the news of the fire nation, and though the members of the camp were less panicked than they had been that day, they were still far from calm. And it was Suga’s job to talk sense into them, Suga’s job to maintain peace, but it was in moments like these where he was alone, where he was not putting on a confident face for the people around him, that made him realize just how scared he himself was.  
He breathed in the cold night air, trying to focus on the scenery around him, trying to let go of the stress of his life.  
He closed his eyes, feeling the rough rock beneath him, wiggling his toes, trying to enjoy what was around him, but it was hard.  
Stresses of Wasijo taking the fire nation crawled it's way into his head, worries of how outnumbered they were, fear of what could happen in the future. He opened his eyes and looked down on the tents, quiet and still as everyone was sleeping. He didn't want anything to happen to them; his friends, his people in a way. He paused and looked down on his slender hands, admiring his long beautiful fingers. He didn't want anything to happen to himself either.  
He felt his body kind of curl up in fear, his eyebrows scrunched with worry as he wrapped his arms around himself. He couldn't help it. He was so afraid. This was war for crying out loud.

"Suga...?"

He may have jumped and nearly fell off the rock.

"Oh! Daichi, you scared me."

Daichi sat down gingerly next to him.  
"I didn't scare you as badly as whatever is on your mind did," he said.

Though it was a bit of a snarky remark, his voice was filled with compassion as he reached out and put an arm around Suga.

Suga leaned into him gently, appreciating the warmth and care of his boyfriend.  
Yes, the two were dating. They hadn't told anyone though, a romantic relationship in the middle of a war was too much extra drama.  
But the two would often have small moments together in the middle of the night, soft touches, kisses, comfort to ground each other.  
To be there for each other, and to express their love for each other.

"I can tell you're bothered," Daichi began, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, it's-its nothing," Daichi already had so much burden on his shoulders from leading this camp, Suga didn't want to add to that load.

Daichi merely pulled him closer and whispered in his ear,  
"If I couldn't handle talking to you I wouldn't have come up here. Talk to me."

Suga smiled slightly. Daichi always knew what to say to make Suga comfortable.

"Well, I'm just.....worried," he said, "Washijo already has control over the entire earth kingdom, the western air temple, and now the fire nation to boot! It's like Asahi said, we have nowhere safe left to go. It's just us versus the whole world....."

Daichi pulled him closer again, hugging him, holding him tightly, never saying anything, just listening.

"And we are such a small group," Suga continued, "We are so outnumbered, we hardly have any chance of beating Washijo or even surviving at all!"

"Suga..." Daichi said, cradling his face gently in his palm as a few tears began to spill from Suga's brown eyes.

"I don't want to die Daichi, I don't want any of us to die....I don't want you t-to die."

"Then fight for it," Daichi said, "We'll fight for what we want and if we don't make it, then we don't make it. If we do make it, then we make it. Try to divorce yourself from the outcome and focus on what is in front of you."

Suga nodded, taking a deep breath.  
'Divorce yourself from the outcome' he inwardly repeated, 'focus on what is in front of you'.  
He could feel himself starting to calm down slightly.

"We can't change what has happened, we can't reverse time and keep Washijo from taking the fire nation. We can only change our own actions, so put your energy into fighting for your life rather than worrying about what happened or what will happen," Daichi said.

Suga turned and rested his forehead against Daichi's.

"Thanks. I'm feeling a bit better now," he said.

They took a moment to look into each other's eyes, sinking into the color palette that was the other's iris's.  
Daichi loved Suga's eyes.  
They were bright and brown, yet mature, knowledgeable.  
He loved Suga's face, his soft, flawless skin, the small mole underneath his eye.  
He just looked at him, taking in his beauty, taking in his love for Suga, and Suga's love for him.  
In a moment, Daichi closed his eyes, prepared to lean in to join their lips.  
But before he could, Suga let out a deadly gasp and put a hand over Daichi's mouth, turning Daichi around to face the cliff adjacent to them.  
And what he saw caused his insides to freeze with fear.  
Ushijima Wakatoshi and Tendou Satori were approaching camp Karasuno.

Daichi was inwardly grateful Suga had come up here tonight, because due to how silently they were approaching, Daichi doubted Ushijima and Tendou would have been seen until it was too late.

From where they were, they could see the fire bender and earth bender sneaking across the edge of the adjacent cliff while looking down at the camp, pointing and whispering, clearly making plans.

"Daichi...." Suga whispered behind him. Daichi jumped at his voice, having been mildly petrified with fear.

"T-they're not alone," Suga pointed to behind the cliff, decently far away, to a spot that they would not have seen if they weren't up here. The small downward slope was covered in earth troops, hundreds of them, in small earth tents, clearly sleeping for the night.

"Those must be the troops moving to the fire nation," Daichi whispered back.  
He could hardly believe it.

"I don't know, but we have to do something. Quick, you go down and wake up the camp, I will hold them off and keep them from attacking,"

"Suga you can't fight them by yourself-"

"I will, to buy you time. Get the second years to move everyone out and then get the third years to join me in holding them off. Once the first years are safe we'll evacuate, now go we have very little time!"

As they whispered urgently they could see Ushijima move into a basic earth bending position, preparing himself to crack the earth around the camp open, so he could flood it with lava.

Desperately Suga jumped into action as Daichi darted down to the camp.  
He ran forward and used a water whip to hit Ushijima's ankles.  
Initially, he had planned to break his stance and make him tumble, but to his surprise the water did not make him fall. He shook a bit from the impact, but his feet did not give way.  
Then both he and Tendou turned to look at Suga.

"Uh oh."

Everything began happening at once, the earth rocking and busting up around him as Ushijima bent it, explosions erupted on all sides, all he could do was run.  
He couldn't tell where they were anymore, or where he was, red dust from the Mesa clouded his vision as he ran.  
Distantly he heard Daichi shouting and waking everybody up, but was distracted when an explosion happened directly next to him launching him back.  
He flew pretty far into the air before Ushijima shot a stone out of the cliff, punting Suga's form back from where he came.  
Suga was only aware of being launched back and forth by Ushijima's earth bending, as if they were playing some kind of sick game of ping pong and Suga was the ball. Each time he thought he might hit the ground, some stone spire would rise up and kick him back into the air.  
It was terrible. There was nothing he could do.  
Everything swam around him as he was hit and hit again, no way to protect himself, until his vision began to fade to black.  
With a final thud he was at last dropped and he fell unconscious.

Kageyama's favorite time was the night.  
It was when people left him alone for once, when he could show his emotions with no worries of being heard, seeing as they all would be asleep.  
Every night he would wait for everyone to drift off and then let his tears fall, quietly, as he didn't want to wake anyone up.  
It was the only time he wasn't flocked on all sides, by people who might judge him, might hurt him if he ever said how he was actually feeling.  
It was the only time he could be honest to himself about how he actually felt.  
So, every night he would cry, be himself rather than the hard core image he was trying to uphold when around other people, until he eventually fell asleep.  
But this night was different.  
He could sense it.  
Everything was oddly still, almost like it is just before a storm.  
He sat up, almost sniffing the air, trying to tell what was wrong.  
He looked down at Hinata, who was sleeping soundly on the other side of the tent.  
At least he was peaceful.  
He tried to go back to sleep, but once again, some odd feeling kept him awake.  
It was then that he decided to check outside. Just as he walked out of the tent, he saw Daichi sliding down the cliff and begin to run to the camp, fear and desperation in his eyes.  
Kageyama was about to ask what was wrong when Daichi ran past him, shouting loudly.

"WE'RE BEING ATTACKED EVERYONE UP! SECOND YEARS, GET THE FIRST YEARS OUT, THIRD YEARS COME WITH ME!!"

As he shouted Kageyama could see explosions going off up on the cliffs. Without hesitation he ran back into the tent.

"HINATA BOKE GET UP!"

"Huh? Jeez Kageyama your so mean," he yawned blearily, "Can't a man get some slee-"

"WERE BEING ATTACKED YOU IDIOT! WE HAVE TO GET OUT!"

"WHAT!?" He jumped up, "Wait, by Ushiwaka?"

"YES! NOW COME ON!" He grabbed Hinata by the collar and ran out of the tent, trying to ignore the panic in his throat.  
They saw Kiyoko, Asahi and Daichi running up the cliff to where Ushijima and Tendou probably were.  
Kageyama spotted Nishinoya and Tanaka waving their hands in the air.

"FIRST YEARS COME WITH US!"

He ran to them, still holding Hinata's collar.

"Ouch! Kageyama let go-!"

Without warning there was an explosion right before him. Instinctively he dropped to the floor on top of Hinata, protecting him from harm.  
He could feel intense heat move over his back.  
Had Tendou already gotten past the third years?

He roughly helped Hinata back to his feet and chanced a glance back to the cliff where the third years were trying to defend against Ushiwaka. He could see Suga, Daichi and Kiyoko all lying unconscious in various areas.  
Only Asahi was still standing.

"Quick, we don't have much time until they get down here!" He said starting to run in the direction Noya and Tanaka were heading with the first years.

"Wait no! We can't just leave them! We have to help!" Hinata shouted, struggling against Kageyama's grip. "Kageyama let go!"

"No we have to get out! They'll follow us!"

But Hinata dug his feet into the ground, and, with a strength Kageyama thought was impossible for such small arms, fought off Kageyama's grip.

Kageyama turned to look at him, prepared to scold him for stopping as they retreated, but fell short when he saw Hinata's face.  
He almost looked possessed, with wide eyes staring intensely, sweat dripping slowly off of his chin.

"I'm not going to lose anyone else to Ushijima ever again," he said in a creepily calm voice. And with that he created an air scooter and shot backwards to help fight with Asahi.

Wait.  
An air scooter?  
And something clicked in Kageyama's brain.

Hinata felt as if everything was in slow motion, his body and mind were strangely blank, yet aware, as he flew towards Ushijima and Tendou.  
He almost felt dizzy, but somehow keen.  
He wasn't thinking about his actions, he just kind of was doing, determinedly air bending to hold the two off.  
Yet even as he did this, he saw Asahi get blasted back by Tendou, hitting the ground and falling unconscious like the other third years, and this seemed to trigger something in him.  
Emotion took over like some sort of tidal wave, he rose into the air, a tornado forming around him, his eyes began to glow, and he had lost all ability to control his movements.  
It was as if he was seeing through another's eyes, he saw his hand slash down with no feeling of moving it himself, causing the tornado to move forwards, engulfing everything from tents to the bending field with insane power, no ability to control it.

He saw Ushijima's eyes widen in fear as he grabbed Tendou around the waist and created a hole in the earth.  
He jumped down there and sealed the top, clearly trying to avoid the tornado, which slowly sucked up everything, causing boulders to fall and shatter.

Hinata saw his other arm move, directing the tornado to the hundreds of earth troops, ripping up the earth tents, scattering everyone, destroying with no ability to stop.  
What was happening to him?

But then something grabbed him around the waist, pulling him back down to the ground.  
He looked down, anger contorting his features, prepared to blast whatever had touched him to smithereens, when he realized it was Kageyama.  
And something calmed in him.  
As much as he hated this guy, he didn't want to hurt him.  
His eyes turned back to normal, he felt himself gain control of his emotions again, and an insane wave of fatigue took over him.  
He fell, flopped, dropped into Kageyama's arms who held him firmly.  
He was so tired he could hardly tell what was going on around him, and was barely even aware of it when Kageyama jumped straight into the river

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suga- I'm so sorry  
> Ty for reading!


	3. Words Exchanged

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata comes to terms with learning he is the avatar. Aoba Johsai starts a plan.

Hinata was unconscious. He seemed to be in some kind of ethereal world, not present, not thinking.  
A small part of him was aware of Kageyama's arms holding his body, but his mind was floating, drifting in some different time and space.  
He could see images, but they were foggy, disoriented, passing like clouds of mist before he could tell what they were.  
But then one image stayed. Instead of fading like the rest, it became more and more solid, mist forming into what appeared to be a silhouette of a short man.  
As it came closer, became more vivid, as the mist separated and faded away from the figure, Hinata recognized it as the short man who had shown up in his dream a few nights ago.  
In fact, this wild figure had appeared in many of Hinata's dreams, with the feeling of wanting to give some kind of message, but each time fading before a word could be said. It continued to come closer and closer, until Hinata could see every detail of the man's face. Wild shocks of fluffy black hair covered his head, his eyes were a piercing dark blue. He was small, just a bit taller than Hinata, but mysterious, dangerous looking.

"Hinata," it said, "I am the Little Giant."

"The........who?"

The man looked at him with a slightly unimpressed expression.

"The little giant? The past Avatar?"

"The past what?"

The Little Giant sighed.

"Ok then we are starting from the ground up."

The little giant closed his eyes, and behind him the mist began forming into images of a person bending earth, water, fire, and air.

"The Avatar is the one person on the planet who can bend more than one element. They use this power to keep the four nations in balance, to restore peace. To keep the world in check."

The little Giant stared at him deeply with his ocean eyes.

"You, Hinata, are the avatar."

There was a small silence.

"But I thought you just said that you were the avatar."

"I'm the past avatar, your past life. Each time an avatar dies, they are reincarnated into a new avatar. That new avatar is you. Didn't you ever wonder why you could bend both fire and air?"

Hinata nodded.

"People believe the avatar is dead. When I was alive I was nearly killed when I was in the Avatar state. Many people believe I was, and assume the avatar is dead forever. But I survived. I managed to crawl away and leave the avatar state before I died completely."

"The what state?"

"The avatar state. A protection mechanism. Back when you were attacked by Ushijima and Tendou, remember how you created that tornado? Remember how you lost control of your abilities yet possessed mad power? That is the avatar state. If an avatar is killed in the avatar state, the line of reincarnation stops completely."

"Ok so what does this all mean?"

The Little Giant stared him down again.

"It means you have to defeat Washijo. You must learn to master the four elements and restore peace to this land. It is your duty."

Hinata nodded again. He wasn't entirely sure what to say.

"I am going to leave you know," the little giant said, "Good luck. But remember,"  
The mist formed into a line of people who Hinata could only assume we're more past avatars.  
"We are all behind you."  
And with that he faded into the mist.

Bubbles, twisting, dancing, rising to the surface of the river where they burst with a small pop. Kageyama was at the bottom of a river, bending the water around him into a safe air bubble as he traveled downstream, Hinata still limp in his arms. They had been traveling this way for several hours, getting as far away from Ushijima and Tendou as possible. If Hinata was in fact the avatar, Kageyama saw it as his duty to protect him and help him on his journey.  
But still.  
This kid?  
Hinata?  
He was the bringer of peace, the one to stop wars, to hold balance.  
Him?  
But there was no doubting it. The avatar fascinated Kageyama, he had spent years studying everything anyone knew about any of the avatars, and he knew what an avatar state looked like. Plus the kid air bent. When he said he was a fire bender.  
Kageyama sighed, the weight of the water heavy on his arms.  
He'd lost count of the time he had been traveling, drifting downstream. He looked up and saw small beams of orange and pink lights dancing off of the water molecules. Sunrise.  
It was probably safe enough to leave the river now.

When Hinata came to he found himself lying face up on the ground. Brown pine needles scattered the earth below him, blades of soft green grass poking up in various areas. The sky was directly in his line of vision; blue blotted with a gentle pink, obscured by some winding branches of the pine trees. A bird chirped distantly, but all else was quiet. That is, except for the figure noisily gathering stones and sticks around him.

"K-kageyama?" He yawned, "Where are we?"

"I don't know."

"Gee that's real helpful."

"We're far away. If you're the avatar we should be as far away from danger as possible until you're capable of handling it."

"Hey! I'm capable of handling things-"

"Why didn't you say you were the avatar?!" Kageyama suddenly spat at him.  
"Hey, I didn't know!" Hinata defended "I'm all kind of new to this, I didn't even know there was an avatar until some guy just showed up in my dream a minute ago saying he was my past self and telling me about it but-"

"The Little Giant came to you in a dream?"

"Yes- wait. How did you know who he was?"

"Uh, he was the last avatar? Your past self? Died around fifteen years ago? Everyone knows about him?"

".....Then why don't I.....?"

Kageyama shrugged.  
"You know what the avatar does right?"

"Um... Bend the four elements and restore peace..?" Hinata answered.

"Yeah. We need to teach you all the elements so you can stop Washijo."

"But what if I don't want to-" but at the word 'Washijo' he remembered the camp, Daichi, Suga, what had happened to them?

"Wait! What happened to the others? Back at Karasuno?"

Kageyama shrugged. "I was just preoccupied with getting you to safety."

"But what if they're not ok? Oh my goodness, I owe them so much- we have to go back!!"

"What? Are you crazy?"

But Hinata had jumped up and began to run back towards the river, looking around to see what direction they had come from.

"Wait no!"  
Kageyama grasped him around the wrist.

"Let go Kageyama! We have to go help them!"

"No! Listen to me Hinata!" Kageyama hissed. Hinata stopped struggling, somewhat shocked at the tone of his voice.

"It's been hours," Kageyama said, "If they needed saving it will be far too late. And we can't return there. Washijo will be expecting you to come back, we will get ambushed, you will be captured and there will be no avatar to help save the world."

"Yeah but if I'm the avatar I'm sure I could deal with it-"

"Not if you don't know how. Listen. The best way you can help them now is by dedicating yourself to learning to bend the four elements and getting what they fought for. Freedom. Stopping Washijo. There is no other way."

Hinata blinked at him.

"If you want to throw away the hopes of the world and sacrifice yourself, then fine. But you should know how valuable and needed you are now."  
With that he let go of Hinata.

"Ok..." Hinata murmured. He turned back and walked to the small clearing he had woken up in.  
He saw Kageyama flash him a very small smile.  
Wait.  
Kageyama actually smiled?!  
Hinata stared at him with a mixture of shock and glee.

"What is with that look on your face!?" Kageyama snapped.

"You CAN smile! Not the terrifying emotionless person you like to think of yourself as, huh?"

"Shut up!" Kageyama turned away.

"Kageyama smiled, Kageyama smiled, Kageyama smiled," Hinata began chanting.

"If you say that one more time I will actually kill you-"

"Yeah sure, just kill the world's only hope because you smiled."

"How about we think about what to get for breakfast," Kageyama cut across him with a dangerous, forced calm face, "So the world's only hope doesn't starve because he was too busy taunting his acquaintance."

"Fair enough." Hinata said.

The two then proceeded to try and assemble the best breakfast they could with the little they had in their surroundings.  
Kageyama had Hinata start a small fire to cook with because he didn't 'trust Hinata to not gather poisonous shrubbery'.  
He then went to the river and tried to bend some fish out of the water. Unfortunately, this did not work too well as the only nearby fish were tiny rainbow trout and Hinata may have dropped them into the fire while they bickered on how to cook it.  
They had charred small fish and we're still quite hungry after they finished.

"Soooo," Hinata said, leaning back into the pine needle strewn earth, "What now?"

Kageyama glared dangerously at him. Hinata made a small squeak and backed up a bit.

"Hey I was just asking a question! You don't have to be so mean about it!" Hinata cried.

For a second, Hinata thought Kageyama was going to retort back. But then, with a look as if he was swallowing something disgusting, Kageyama looked down at his feet.

"You're right. It was uncalled for."

Hinata stared at him.

"What?" Kageyama said.

"You smiled and corrected your behavior? What has gotten into you today?" Hinata answered. Despite that the choice of words sounded snarky, he said it cheerfully and with a bright smile.

"Maybe I'm just trying to get along with you now seeing as we're gonna be stuck together for who knows how long."

Hinata looked down and started picking at the grass. "You don't have to stay and help me you know."

"I know." Kageyama said.

Hinata looked up at him. "But then why are you staying? I thought you didn't like me?"

"I don't." Kageyama answered, "But it's wrong to leave someone to deal with the burden of the world alone. You're the avatar. You're about to start an intense journey of defeating darkness, personal change, and it's going to be hard. Better to do it with someone by your side."

"Yeah, I guess so." Hinata gave him a small smile. "So then.. we need to find me a teacher? You can bend water right? Why don't you teach me?"

Kageyama nodded thoughtfully, "Yes, I'll teach you. Though we should also get to some kind of town to gather as much supplies as we can. I don't think Washijo quite knows what you look like yet so it's not too dangerous to go to public places."

He then turned to look at Hinata.  
"Where is your animal guide? We need it to travel."

"My what?"

"Animal guid. Avatars usually have some sort of animal guid who helps them on their journey. Did you have a pet of some sort growing up?"

"Well, I mean, yeah.....there was Sunny..."

"Sunny?"

"Yeah my sky bison."

"What happened to him?"

Hinata began picking at the grass again.  
"It's a kind of a long story..."

* *. *

Many moons and months ago, before the world was covered in Washijo's troops, the northern water tribe was widely known through the four nations for three of its benders.  
These were Oikawa Tooru, Akaashi Keiji, and Kageyama Tobio.  
Before Ushijima and Tendou, these three were considered some of the greatest benders in the world, Kageyama with his precise strikes, Akaashi with his open mindedness, ability to face any situation, and Oikawa with his insanely powerful means of attacking.  
Though Kageyama and Oikawa did not get along too well, they worked dangerously well together, and most considered the three unbeatable.

It was then that Washijo used Ushijima and Tendou to take the capital of Ba-sing-sae, gaining him the city and a huge advantage over the earth kingdom.  
To help prevent him from taking over, the chief of the northern water tribe had sent the three down to go help win the city of Ba sing sae back.  
But before they could make it, they had been ambushed by Ushijima and Tendou, scattered, the alliance destroyed.

Oikawa Tooru remembered that day vividly, how Ushijima and Tednou had attacked in the middle of the night, how the three had lost each other in the frenzy.  
He remembered how hard he had tried to protect the other two, only for them to be blasted back, injured.  
He knew Kageyama had managed to escape, having seen him run away into the forest, but whatever had happened to Akaashi was beyond his knowledge.  
He remembered attempting to fight Ushijima and Tendou, only to be brushed off like a flea, immediately beaten.  
They were so much better at bending than he was, and that had been slapped in his face that day.  
He had stood up and attacked them, only to be knocked down again and again, refusing to run, to the point where he would have been killed if Akaashi hadn't washed him to safety in a tidal wave.  
Akaashi.  
He owed the water bender his life, though for all he knew, he could be dead. And this was partially the reason he craved revenge.

After being severely injured and washed far away, he had found himself, conveniently, near an earth kingdom village where he knew an old childhood friend lived.  
He had stumbled his way to Iwaizumi's house, who took him in and helped heal him up. By the time Oikawa had mostly recovered the two decided to start an organization by the name of Aoba Johsai.

Aoba Johsai was similar to Karasuno; they rescued survivors and traveled around to evade capture, but unlike Karasuno, they were not just planning to survive. They had an end game.  
They were going to try to take down Ushijima and Tendou.

However, they were a far way away from that end game.  
They had too few people, who were hardly skilled enough to fight even a small battle on their own.  
And this bothered Oikawa.  
He wanted to take his plan into his own hands.

Currently Aoba Johsai was in a deep swamp near the middle of the earth kingdom, so deep in and hidden it was protected from the outside world.  
Their current goal was to travel to small towns that were in Washijo's control, and convince as many as they could to join their ranks.  
This wasn't working too well though. Most were far too afraid to blatantly betray Washijo, some thought it was wrong, others had just blatantly given up hope. This only increased Oikawa's feeling that he should take the two down on his own.

Oikawa himself was currently a little ways away from the tents, over a few logs and behind several bushes, away from sight.  
Before him was a frog that was leaping back and forth at the guidance of his hand. Blood bending.  
His secret weapon.  
But he couldn't let anyone know he could do it. He knew what they'd say; it's messed up and wrong, it's unethical. But he didn't care. As far as he was concerned, Ushijima deserved it.

He made the frog bounce back and forth, lay on the ground, roll around; he could feel it struggling against him, but his determination was too strong for the frog, it fell to his will, no matter how much it didn't want too.  
But then, behind him, he heard a small twig snap.  
He jumped and turned around, the frog taking the opportunity to hop away with a deafening croak.

"Who's there?" He called.

No one answered, but it didn't take long for Oikawa to figure out who it was. From the bristly black hair that appeared over the bush the person was hiding behind, and the small bit of muscly arm he could see, it was clearly his old friend Iwaizumi. Iwaizumi was always terrible at hiding; he's more the type to face something head on rather than sneak around it, hence him being an earth bender. Oikawa could remember the two playing hide and seek as children; Iwaizumi used to always think Oikawa peeked when he was hiding, but in truth the man was just plain bad at keeping himself hidden.  
Oikawa slapped on a fake smile and gave a loud, but completely convincing giggle.

"I can see you there Iwa-chan," he said in a soft singsong voice to mask his panic of being caught. Once again, his voice showed no sign of fear; Oikawa was incredible at lying.

Iwaizumi twitched nervously behind the bush.

"There's no point in trying to stay hidden. You're totally in view." Oikawa chuckled again.

Iwaizumi walked out behind the bush.

"What are you doing?" He said harshly.

"Oh, just practicing." Oikawa said, turning his back to Iwaizumi and raising some water out of the swamp, bending it in swirling, beautiful motions, "Merely honing my skills."

"If by honing your skills you mean blood bending, then yeah."

Oikawa froze. So he had seen. He tried his best to go back to the singsong-Y voice and attitude. "I don't quite know what you’re talking abou-"

"Oikawa."

"I mean, I've never blood bent before I was just practicing normal bending-"

"Oikawa!"

"What kind of a monster do you think I am-"

Iwaizumi reached forwards and grabbed his wrist roughly.

"Hey-!"

"Shut it Oikawa. I saw you doing it."

Oikawa was about to retort, but he fell short at the sight of Iwaizumi's face. In all twelve years of knowing him, he had never seen Iwaizumi so angry. His face was red and blotchy looking, his eyes squinted and eyebrows knitted together. His breathing was heavy and shaking slowly.

"I don't know," Iwaizumi began, his voice cracking from trying to keep it calm, "What gave you the idea that it was ok to blood bend, but whatever it was is wrong. I don't care if you think it might help beat Ushijima, but taking away something's ability to move is completely unethical."

He moved his face closer to Oikawa's.  
"Don't do it again."

He then backed up.

"I'm going back to the camp, it's game night and I think Maki and Matsune are going to try to convince Kindaichi to gamble with them. That never ends well."

Iwaizumi walked away, avoiding Oikawa's gaze. Oikawa stayed behind for a bit, taking time to regain himself.  
It was in fact game night, and the crew all sat down to play a little Pai Shou. It ended in a pretty close game between Oikawa and Yahaba, though Yahaba won by a hair.

It was soon that they all began to get ready for bed, but just before everyone turned in for the night, Watari and Kunimi returned from a nearby village.

"Great news everyone!" Watari shouted while passing out ropes and supplies to everyone, "The avatar isn't dead! They say a new air bender is back! And so far he's already taken out plenty of earth troops!"

"Oh how wonderful!" Oikawa exclaimed, though a small part of him twisted at that thought. The avatar would surely try to take down Ushijima and Tendou. He'd have to put his plan into operation sooner than he thought.

"Yes it is good," Iwaizumi added, "That means that we won't have to make as many personal sacrifices now." He looked straight at Oikawa, who promptly ignored him.  
*. *. *

"So um..." Kageyama said, "Are you going to tell me what happened to uh, Sunny?"

Hinata looked up at him. For once he wasn't his usual loud, gregarious self. Instead he seemed small, curling around his stomach.

"I..guess......"

He took a deep breath.  
Kageyama leaned back, waiting for the other to speak.

"So, I was born in the Eastern Air temple." Hinata began.

"The one Washijo has now?"

"Yeah." Hinata answered, "My whole family lived there, my mom, me, my dad, m-my sister..."

He could see it in his mind's eye, he could remember the days of peace, when it was just games, just him and Natsu playing on air scooters, laughing.....

"Well I had an air bison who was named Sunny too, he was the son of my moms air bison."

Kageyama nodded.

"And we were all pretty happy then...." Hinata continued.

"But then Washijo took over Ba Sing Sae. I wasn't too worried, it seemed a long way away. But he kept taking over the earth kingdom. Eventually he sent a letter to the monks saying he either wanted to make an alliance or he would attack the temple. That made things...confusing. Some of us wanted to join him to protect the air temple, others, my family included, wanted to fight to protect our homeland. Our people became split..."

Kageyama nodded again, watching him with interest.

"No one could decide what to do. We spent days and days having councils, trying to make a decision. But we took too long to decide. Ushijima and Tendou showed up one day with tons of earth bending soldiers and a fight broke out."

"How do they get places so fast?" Kageyama wondered out loud, "They travel unusually quickly."

Hinata made a 'I dunno' kind of noise.

"Uh, sorry, what were you saying?"

"Well, it was chaos. Some of the monks wanted to let them in and were helping them, but the rest of us were fighting our hardest to keep them out. You couldn't know who to trust, our own people back stabbed us, it was just a bloody battle everywhere."  
He shuddered at the thought.  
"Then my mom got our family bison somehow in the fray. She managed to get me, my sister, my sister's lemur, and my dad and we flew away to safety but....but we.."

"Didn't save Sunny....?" Kageyama finished.

There was a silence.

"After that we went to one of those rebel earth bender towns. We lived there for a while until those two showed up again and we scattered. My mom, my sister, Sunny....I don't know what happened to any of them."

He sniffed, tears forming at the edges of his round brown eyes.

"And that was where you were when Karasuno found you?"

"Yeah...."

"Oh. I'm sorry...."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oikawa makes his entrance! Kagehina are (trying) to get along.


	4. One step forwards, two steps back.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kageyama and Hinata, still mad at being stuck together, make it to a village and have some disagreements.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last chapter of the Haikyuu manga came out today and I am 100% crying about it. This show has been with me so long. It was my very first anime so many years ago and it's meant so much. Thank you haikyuu.  
> Ok serious stuff out of the way have a new fic chapter

Natsu.  
Sister of Hinata, a small angel who has seen far too much destruction for her young age. She had escaped the rebel town they had lived in after being rescued from Ushijima himself, or, someone she thought was just a random earth bender she had never met.  
After he had let her out on a bridge she had run for a long time, passed many rivers and thousands of trees. When she became too tired to run any more she had grabbed onto the bottom of a passerby wagon and hitch hiked to a small, and. Extremely rugged town in the northern earth kingdom.

There she stayed for a few days, talking people into giving her food with her classic puppy eye move.  
But the people there were unkind, and she became afraid and ran away again.

She had grabbed onto the back of several wagons, gone down road after road, even river rafted with a few strange water benders until she found herself at a large cliff overlooking the sea.  
There she had sat down, not knowing where she was or what was happening and cried.  
To her luck, however, she had been found by an extremely dramatic airbender by the name of Bokuto who had been flying overhead. He took her in and brought her to the northern air temple where she was loved and cared for.  
Bokuto and his friend Akaashi, a water bender who had apparently been brought there by Bokuto in the same fashion, became her new, almost adoptive parents.  
They were happy, but she never stopped wondering what the fate was of her brother.  
*. *. *

"You just kind of, push it?" Kageyama said.  
The two were knee deep in the river next to their small makeshift camp, while Kageyama tried to teach Hinata to water bend. They had been at it for an hour and gotten just about no where.

"What do you mean 'push it'?! I can't push it without touching it!"

"Hypothetically! Just-just move it! It's not that hard!"

"It's hard when you tell me to just do it but not how!"

"Well you're not listening!"

"You're not teaching!"

Kageyama looked at him.  
"Do you want to try again later?"

"No! I want to learn it now!"

"Ok then just-" Kageyama lifted his arms. A small string of water followed it. He moved back and forth, the water following his movements gracefully.

"You can't say 'just' and then do it, that is not telling me how!!"

"Well I don't know how to tell you how!"

"Ugh, we are never going to get anywhere like this! Kageyama, just swallow your pride and actually try to teach me!"

"This isn't a matter of pride! I'm doing the best I can!" Kageyama retorted.

"Then maybe we should find me a better teacher!"  
There was a small silence.

"Ok," Kageyama answered, "We will try to find you a different teacher and see if that works."

He turned on his heel and walked out of the river.

"Wait, where are we even going to find another water bending teacher?" Hinata asked, following him.

Kageyama frowned, "I knew a couple of really good water benders, I just... Don't know what happened to them."

"What do you mean you don't know what happened to them? Can't we just go to where they were living last?"

"We were headed to Ba Sing Sae to help stop Washijo but were attacked before we got there. We scattered. I've never seen them since."

"Oh. Wait, they sent you to help win Ba Sing Sae back? You?!"

Kageyama looked at him with one of his terrifying death glares.  
"I'm one of the three best Water benders in the world. So yes, they sent me."

Hinata shriveled a bit under the other's gaze.

"And I want one of the other two to teach you. You are the avatar, and you deserve to be taught by the best."

Hinata nodded, silently agreeing.

"Then how do we find them? Do you even know if they are alive?"

Kageyama looked down at his feet, his face scrunching a bit. "No...."

"Then...." Hinata cocked his head, "Why don't we head back to where you were attacked and look for clues and stuff?"

"Yeah one problem, genius. We have no idea where we are, let alone how far away we are from where I was attacked."

"Aha!" Hinata clicked his fingers, "Then, we go to a town, get supplies, like you said you wanted to earlier, get a map, and then go from there!"

"Good idea, but again, we don't have a clue where we are or where the nearest town would be." Kageyama said.

"Then we walk in a random direction until we find one."

"What, are you stupid?"

"You got a better idea?"

There was a pause.

"Ok so which direction do we take." Kageyama said.

Hinata gave him a 'haha I bested you' sort of look.

"Hmm.. How about that way." Hinata pondered, pointing west, "My gut feels good about that direction."

"Sure lets just follow you gut in some unknown direction with nothing but the clothes on our back and what we can find in the wilderness around us." Kageyama said, "Can we stick to the river? It will help us keep track of where we are, is a decent food source, and a weaponry source for me should we need it."

"Well, the river goes the way my gut wants to go, so sure."

The two then set off in the direction of the sun set along the rock edge of the swirling river. It was a cool walk, shade was provided by the luminous pine trees, and a constant, chilly waft rose it's way above the river and sent shivers along their feet. They took breaks every now and then in the sunnier areas, taking time to warm up or catch a few more small rainbow trout to snack on, but mostly they walked in silence, each subject to their own thoughts, giving each other the cold shoulder.  
They still did their best to act mean to each other, still resolute on disliking the other, but deep down they both could feel affection growing, perhaps from being alone together for such a long time, or just because they were opening up about their pasts to the other.  
But Hinata huffed and crossed his arms. Even if he and Kageyama were growing closer, the guy was a big jerk, and he was by no means going to act nice to him.

In a surprisingly short amount of time the blue bell sky became infected with dollops of pink and purple, and the sun descended lower and lower into the horizon. They had mostly left the forest now. The trees were more sparse here, and hilly plains and fields could be spotted ahead.  
They set up camp, as in made a small fire (it took a while to light as the most fire Hinata was bending were small sparks) and snuggled as best they could into the harsh, solid earth. Unfortunately, they slept along the river, and the cool draft snuffed out the fire and chilled them all night long. They were both freezing by morning.  
They continued their walk when the sun rose the next morning after, still following the winding stream. About midday they settled down for another rest.

"My feet are sore!" Hinata cried, flopping into the grass, "I miss riding sky bison to get around."

Kageyama too had hit the floor, though he was silently rubbing his feet with a pained expression rather than groaning.

"I have an idea." Kageyama said, "When we get to a town and find a map lets go to the nearest air temple and get you a knew bison."

Hinata stared at him for a solid five seconds.

"Um....." Kageyama said.

"You'd do that for me?!" Hinata suddenly exclaimed, "Ooo! And then can I get my air bending tatoo's? I was going to but Ushijima and Tendou attacked before I could. Oh my gosh! And then I can get a staff, oh I miss those, you can fly with them, it's so cool- and its summer! That's when the baby bison start to mature so they can fly and-"

"And then we won't have to spend so long walking....." Kageyama added quietly. The corners of his mouth had twitched into a slight smile at seeing Hinata so excited.

"But should we check out where you were attacked first? When we get a map?"

"Yes." Kageyama said, "It's been quite a while so most stuff is probably already covered up. The sooner we get there, the better. But after that we'll go to an air temple."

"Gwaaa! I just remembered!" Hinata cried, "At the air temple there is a center room that can only be opened through air bending- but it has avatar stuff in it!"

"Yeah I know. It has tons of statues of past avatars." Kageyama said.

"How do you know so much about the avatar?" Hinata acused.

"Uh, I spent years studying it?"

"Oh yeah."

They continued after a good drink of river water and began walking again. Slowly the trees began thinning out and great fields of swaying, tall blades of grass surrounded them, licking their heels as they walked. Breezes drifted through lazily, bending the grass into a bowing motion and weaving between the locks of the two's hair. The sun was high in the sky and warmed their heads and backs. It was calm and gentle, a peaceful atmosphere, that is, until Hinata bean jumping up and down excitedly and pointing a little ways in front of them.

"Gwaa! Kageyama! Kageyama look! Look look look!"

"Ugh what is it..." Kageyama said, but Hinata just kept jumping up and down, exclaiming excitedly. "Oi shut up for a second and tell me what you saw."

"It's a road!"

"Yeah. A road. Great."

"No you idiot, roads lead to cities don't they?"

"Oh!"

Hinata then sprinted to it excitedly. Kageyama hesitantly left the side of the river.

"You do realize you are leaving our water, food, and weapon source to follow an unknown path to the depths of who knows where, with no idea how close any neighboring areas are right?" He said.

"Oh for goodness sake loosen up Kageyama! We came all the way out here to find some kind of civilization and this is our first sign. Be more like an air bender, let go, detach." He then sent a breeze Kageyama's way that ruffled his hair and made it stick up in the back.

"Yeah, loosen up and walk away from our food source? No thanks."

Hinata just blew wind in his hair again with a chuckle.

"Stop blowing wind in my hair! I'm serious we don't know how far-"

Hinata shot more wind at him, somewhat more forcefully this time.

"No, listen to me-"

More wind sticking his hair up.

"Ok fine if that's how you want to play!"  
With that Kageyama splashed Hinata with a small wave of water from the river. Hinata retaliated by deflecting it with a massive swoop of air so it backfired and rained down on Kageyama's head.

"Aaaarg!"

The two then chased each other around the field, splashing, bouncing, darting back and forth, two skilled benders at work. The highlights included Hinata getting caught in a massive water sphere and exploding it with a burst of air, Kageyama getting launched almost fifty feet before catching himself in a lifted whirlpool structure, and Hinata winning the mini battle by merely sticking out his foot and tripping Kageyama.  
By the time they were done both were lying flat on the field, covered in dirt and flecks of water, laughing their heads off. Hinata turned to look at Kageyama. Maybe he wasn't so bad.

"No but seriously," Kageyama got out through a couple of chuckles, "Don't you think it's kind of stupid to leave the river?"

"Of course I do," Hinata answered, breathing somewhat heavily through his only slightly subsided laughter, "But it's kind of essential to continue out our plan. It's a risk I'm willing to take. Plus, wherever we go will have food and water right?"

"Yeah but there is one other thing. We don't have any money."

"Oh yeah. Geez why didn't you say that earlier?!"

"I didn't think of it! Why didn't you think of it in the first place?!"

At this the laughter shattered. The moment returned to tense dislike rather than light hearted fun, the two glaring daggers at each other.

"We'll have to get some sort of career," Kageyama reasoned, "Maybe like, house sit some old women's house or something."

"Or tell them I'm the Avatar and get free supplies?"

"No! Are you crazy!? Half the world is against you right now, if you told them you were the avatar they'd try to capture you!"

"Yeah well we don't even know what kind of town the nearest one is!"

"Then maybe we should get on the road rather than argue!"

They took a long moment to glare at each other again before standing and moving to the road, both continuing to ponder their new predicament.

"We could steal some money....?" Kageyama thought.

"Absolutely not! I'm the Avatar! I'm supposed to help people, not take from them!"

"Well you got a better idea?"

"Yes! Anything OTHER than that!"

"Well than maybe you should start pitching in ideas rather than being useless!"

"Maybe you should come up with less sadistic ideas!"

They followed the twisting road around bumps of hills that poked up through the fields. The farther they went the more some great mountains came into view along with, low and behold, what appeared to be a small, mangy village.  
From what they could see it was grubby. There were farm houses extending out towards them, ragged ostrich-horses and chicken-pigs meandered in broken, weak fences, though there was a surprisingly small amount of them. Even as they approached the nearest one, they saw several earth bending troops walk up to the house.

"Tax please."

A decently young man answered the door. He was dressed in rags, dirty and ripped, as he dropped a few coins into the earth soldiers hands.

"Also we are going to take four of your ostrich horses. Washijo's orders."

"But sir- we only have three left."

"Then we will take them along with one chicken-pig."

"But that's all of our animals!"

The earth bender looked at him with a dangerous glare.  
"Washijo's orders."

"Y-yes sir."

They could see the rest of the troops head to the back and gather up the only animals on the small farm. With that, they left, and the young man returned inside the decrepit house.

"I have an idea!" Hinata said. After the earth benders were out of sight he ran up to the small house and knocked on the door.

"What else do you want to take from us-! Oh! Um, who are you?" The young man answered.

"Don't worry! I'm not here to take. I'm here to help. I'm the avatar!" Hinata drew himself up proudly. Kageyama visibly face palmed behind him.

The man gasped and put a hand over his mouth.  
"Oh I knew you would come! Please help us, Washijo is taking everything we have to help in the war!"

"I will, but I need something in return. My friend and I need a few supplies to help us on our journey. So when I'm done freeing your village can you give us some?"

"But we have nothing to give."

"Oh...um..."

"Take us to your leader," Kageyama cut in, "We are not doing this for free."

"Alright then follow me."

The three walked down some twisting paths into heart of the village. Hinata grabbed on the back of Kageyama's shirt and whispered in his ear.  
"What are you doing!? We can't take what they don't have!"

"We're not going to take from just this one guy! I'm going to ask the entire village!" He hissed back.

"But the entire village has been treated like this! We can't take from them!"

"We are freeing them. Single handedly when we have absolutely nothing. It's only right for them to help us back!"

Hinata just glared at Kageyama.  
"Man you are so mean!"

"And you are so stupid! What are you thinking, telling this guy who you are!? He's probably leading us into a trap right now!"

The man cleared his throat and the two benders fell silent.

They were standing in front of a massive building that, quite frankly, looked as if it were about to fall over. It was tall and in the center, clearly some kind of town hall, with a twisting wooden frame that had dust shatter off of it when Kageyama poked it.

"Our mayor is inside." The man said, opening the door.

"You go in first." Kageyama said to him, crossing his arms.

The man looked offended.

"I promise I am not leading you into a trap! My, you are inconsiderate!"

"I know right!" Hinata mused, "He's by far the rudest man I ever met. I'm sure it's fine."

With that, Hinata strutted straight into the building.  
Kageyama face palmed again.

Inside there was a roughly carved desk and chair, with a man sitting in it who looked so old his skin almost seemed to be peeling off of his face.

"Who's there!" He called in an ancient, shaky voice, "You all know I hate visitors!"

"Um, I'm the avatar sir!" Hinata pipped up.  
The man looked at him.

"Ok than free our village." He said.

"You got it!" Hinata answered.

"Wait not so fast!" Kageyama said, "We need supplies and money. Give us that in return."

"I thought the avatar was kind. Helping people and expecting nothing in return." The old man said.

Kageyama stared at him.  
"Kindness isn't helping and expecting nothing in return! We're helping you and we need stuff, it's your place to give back!"

"I ain't giving nothing."

"Then we aren't going to free your village."

Kageyama grabbed the back of Hinata's shirt and headed to the door.

"Ok fine! What do you want!" The old man yelled at them just before they walked outside.

Kageyama and the mayor proceeded to haggle, while the man who brought them there talked to Hinata about the situation in the village. It turned out there were a decent amount of earth bending troops that lived in the village, keeping it in their control, making sure even one was inside by curfew, overseeing everything that went down. At Saturday and Sunday evenings troops that were called 'collectors' came around collecting money, food, and whatever they could get and sending it off to Washijo who used it for military purposes.  
Hinata decided that he and Kageyama would chase the earth troops who lived in the village out and then wait for the next bunch of collectors to come by and keep them from entering the village.

"How many benders do you have here? Or people who are willing to fight? We're gonna need all the help we can get when we try to stop the collectors." Hinata mused, "The soldiers in the town aren't likely to be that strong, but the collectors are probable very powerful."

"Oh, please avatar, we are tired and weak from not having solid meals in days. We can't fight."

"Well we haven't had solid meals in days either." Kageyama said, crossing his arms, "You have a whole village. You can't just leave it up to us two to solve your problems."

"But that's what the avatar is supposed to do." The man said.

"No, the avatar is supposed to restore balance, and this little side track is keeping us from getting along on teaching him water bending."

"I'm sorry about him," Hinata cut in, "He's grumpy and inconsiderate at times. I'm sure we can handle the collectors all by ourselves."

Kageyama pulled Hinata aside.  
"You've never fought in a real battle before, what are you thinking taking who knows how many earth troops on by yourself?" He whispered angrily.

"Uh, yes I have! When Ushijima and Tendou attacked!"

"You accidentally went into the avatar state, that doesn't count!"

"Look, we can handle it! Your just being selfish!"

"No, I'm saying, yes we can help them, but we need help too. We just showed up from days of hard travel after having our camp destroyed. We need supplies and food so we can stop the current over lord for goodness sake! We can't do that with nothing!"

Hinata just pushed him away and walked back to the other man.  
"We're going to chase the security guards out tonight. Don't worry about helping us."

*. *. *

The chirping of small crickets, the soft bubble of water that trickled down every log, rock, and surface of the swamp. The foggy atmosphere, the great shade cast by canvases of greenery that spread across the tops of the trees, this was Seijo's home. This is where they had stayed for weeks, mainly in tents suspended off of the branches as it was likely you could start sinking and not stop if you touched ground. They had moved a little east from their past location in the swamp, to a place with much less stable earth, but for precaution reasons they had not left the area. The swamp was almost a giant cubby hole of safety; dark, foul, but protected. Oikawa liked it there.  
He had slipped down the trees to a small rock in the middle of a great river. It had taken great acrobatic skills to go down there, but that was as Oikawa planned. It made it less possible for him to be followed.  
Most of Seijo lacked agility, Iwaizumi in particular. Sure, he could stand his ground, but he certainly couldn't jump from tree to tree if you asked him too. The only one who neared Oikawa in this talent was Yahaba, but the young one was unlikely to come down here.  
Oikawa's brown eyes were focused on the river, where fish frolicked, almost danced, drifting with the current, pleasant, calm. Oikawa lifted a hand.  
As he did a fish, like any other fish, froze, unable to move, as if something had grabbed it. It struggled, it's small bead like eyes bulged, and with all the strength it had in that small fish body it tried to free itself, twitching uncontrollably.  
A small dark smile crossed Oikawa's face. His blood bending was working.  
But even as that thought crossed his mind, the fish, with extraordinary fish strength, broke free, and sped down along the stream.  
Damn it!  
Oikawa would have let out a shout of frustration, but he was too afraid he would be heard. Silently, he punched the air angrily, once again, keeping himself from punching anything solid to keep from making noise.  
Why couldn't he do it?  
Emotion took over him, he paced in a circle, confused, overwhelmed. His head ached from thoughts, madness, fear that over took him. Though he couldn't quite tell, he was afraid. Oh so afraid. His insides curled, he wanted to hide, or to run, he couldn't tell which. He just needed to do something. His pacing quickened as he went into some sort of frenzy. He couldn't handle the emotion, the fear. But then he stopped.  
All this confusion over not blood bending a fish? Man he was so weak! So weak for feeling this way, so weak for not being able to bend the fish in the first place. He sucked.  
With a feeling of almost hypothetically kicking himself into line, he sat down, ignoring his panic and pain, and put all his focus into blood bending another fish. Shutting off from his feeling, from everything around him, squashing the feelings of pain down, as if everything would be fine if he could just blood bend a fish.

"Um, O-Oikawa?"

Oikawa practically jumped five feet into the air. He internally kicked himself again for showing such shock.

"Oh, Yahaba! I, um, didn't see you there!" Oikawa quickly recovered.

"Uh.....Were you just blood bending?" Yahaba tentatively asked.

"What? No! Of course not!"

"Oh. Um, well, I just came to get you because Kyotani accidentally set fire to a tree again, and Iwaizumi said he wanted you to make sure everything was out."

"Ugh. That idiot. This is what? The fifth time?"

"Uh, sixth I believe."

"Sixth then. You go off and tell Iwachan I will be right up."

"Y-yes sir."

Yahaba then bounced back up into the trees, though Oikawa hadn't missed how white the boy's face had gone.  
Oikawa internally swore. Now two people knew what he could do.

*. *. *

The earth village was silent, most of the civilians had gone inside and the last few who straggled in the streets were rushed inside in time for the curfew. As Hinata watched from the top of the town hall he could see patrols begin to walk the lonesome, dusty roads of the area, back and forth. He made a small 'tsk' noise to himself. None of them even looked up. Some patrols they were. Gently, he leapt over to the roof of a small motel, using air to slow his landing so no sound was made, still keeping his eyes on the different patrols, watching their paths, memorizing them.  
But then there was a shadow that darted between the motel and a small market building. Looking down he saw Kageyama, prepared with a barrel of water next to him, already in an attacking stance. He gave him a thumbs up.  
As the guards came within reach Kageyama shot a string of water that wrapped around the three patrols like a rope. He swung the whole mob forward and on to the earth, which he had prepared with a stream of ice. The three slid down the ice path, screaming unintelligibly, straight out of the village.  
Kageyama looked up at Hinata.

"Three down, seven to go!" He called, "Do better than that air head."

But Hinata had already jumped from building top to building top, in search of the other three patrols.  
It did not take long to find them, seeing as they were running towards where the noise was coming from.  
Hinata leapt and landed in front of them, preparing to take them on and show Kageyama he could fight too.  
However, it was a lot harder than it looked.  
Looking back, Hinata got what Kageyama meant by "you've never been in a real fight before". He might be a skilled air bender, but he had never taken anyone on like this.  
He had to dodge, bounce, roll, any acrobatic move to get away from their deadly attacks. It was one air bender's reflexes versus three; each time he dodged an attack, another landed next to where he had gone. He could hardly pay attention to kicking them out of the village, seeing as it required all of his attention to keep himself from getting killed. But then he heard water splashes distantly, shouts, and the rocks raining from above ceased; Kageyama had stepped in.  
And, to Hinata's dismay, it only took Kageyama a few minutes to launch the three out.  
Damn Kageyama and how talented he was! Shoving it in your face that he was better than you, never being grateful, always thinking about himself (though Hinata knew that wasn't necessarily true, he said it to himself all the same). Hinata couldn't stand him.

"Great job avatar," Kageyama said, giving Hinata a smug look, "You make a fine decoy but aren't that good at much else."

"Oh you!! I'm a great fighter! I just don't have as much experience as you!!"

But then a rock shattered directly next to him; the last four had arrived.  
Hinata rushed into the fray angrily, prepared to show them what he could do, to prove to Kageyama something, anything, but his anger blinded his movements, his reflexes slowed; with a shout he was slammed by a boulder, his arm tweaked strangely, and he fell to the earth before the earth bender's feet.  
The earth bender was about to drop a massive boulder on him, but, to his luck, Kageyama saw what was happening and leapt in front, swallowing the earth patrol in a wave and knocking him back so the rock landed on the patrol instead. He stood his ground over Hinata, never leaving him, protecting him, until he managed to wash the last remaining patrol straight out of the village.  
They had won.  
Kageyama then dropped to Hinata's side.

"Are you okay?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Missed last week's update so we're gonna have two chapters! Oikawa's still being a lil bitch ahaha. Also f in the chat for Hinata


	5. Planning ahead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kageyama nurses Hinata back to health, but Ushijima and Tendou are scheming.   
> Nekoma continues to kick ass.

"Avatar! You saved our village! We are people of Washijo no more!"

The civilians of the village had cautiously come out of their houses once the fight seemed to be over. Hinata was still lying on the ground decently injured, swimming in and out of consciousness, Kageyama holding him gingerly.

"Yes, he saved your village, but he's hurt! Where is your doctor?" Kageyama cried.

The people shuffled nervously.

"Our villages only medical support was also taken by Washijo." One young woman spoke up.

"Then don't any of you idiots know anything about how to heal?! He needs help!!"

The people shook their heads, almost backing up as one.  
Kageyama sighed angrily.

"You!" He shouted, pointing at a young man, "Fine me a comfortable bed where I can put him. I said comfortable; don't come up to me with a stack of hay and say Washijo took all your beds. You, grab as many bandages and medical stuff you can find in this godforsaken place. You, get me water, food, and if you have any oils grab those too. I'm going to help him if none of you will."

To Kageyama's great relief, they seemed to know what they were doing once given direct orders. Once everything was assembled, Hinata was lying in a soft bed in the motel, Kageyama had plenty of medical supplies next to him, and had begun working.   
He started by covering all of Hinata's arm in oil, moving it around gently, inspecting it. His already intense scowl deepened when he realized it appeared to be broken.  
He then took some sticks and wrapped them around the arm with bandages to keep it in place. It wasn't much, but it was the best he could do.

"Kageyama....?" Hinata said. His words came out a little slurred and slow.

"You're awake!"

"Yeah......Can't you just heal me with water...."

"No. I don't know how."

"And they call you.....one of the three best water benders......."

"Don't sass me while you are hardly even conscious. Does anything else hurt?"

"Yeah.... My stomach......it was hit by a....rock...." He then appeared to lose consciousness again.

Kageyama grabbed to oil, rubbing it gently on the others stomach.

"Are you hungry..?" Kageyama said quietly.

"Mrphhm....."

"Is that a yes?"

"Hmphrms...."

"Two humphs if you want food, one humph if you don't."

"Hrmphms .....hmff."

"Ok."  
Kageyama began spooning a mushy substance into Hinata's mouth. He had also managed to get a map, some rope, blankets, and other survival essentials from the village so they would be well prepared when they left. The map was spread out over the bed next to Hinata.

"We're not that far from where I and the other water benders where attacked," he mused while pouring goo into the others mouth, "Which, also, isn't that far from an air temple. It won't be that hard to walk there and then go to the temple."

"How are we even gonna get to the temple," Hinata squeezed in between bites, "It's in the middle of the ocean."

"I....don't know. We might not even go there immediately, if we find any leads on where Oikawa and Akaashi are at the attack site."

Hinata grunted and rolled over.

"Is this talk to hard for your head right now?"

"Mmm Hmmm..."

"Oh, sorry. We'll discuss it when you can handle it."

There was a while of silence.

"What about the collectors?" Hinata asked, "The troops who go around taking stuff? Aren't they supposed to come around soon?"

"Yeah, they're scheduled to show up tomorrow evening. But I don't think you’re in a fit state to deal with them. You still are in a lot of shock and you can't even use our arm."

"But we can't leave them to deal with it by themselves!"

"Can't we? These people are capable, they're just cowards, trying to get us to do everything for them. I think they'd be able to deal with it. And if they can't, it's their own fault." Kageyama said, putting a finger to his chin thoughtfully.

"But it's like the mayor said. I'm the avatar. I'm supposed to help anyone who needs it!"

"Yeah but these people don't need it! They just want it!"

"How do you know?" Hinata retorted, sitting up a little, "You've never seen them fight!"

"Actually I have," Kageyama said, pushing Hinata back down into the mattress, "I used to come here a lot when I was younger. Oikawa's friend Iwaizumi lived here and we used to always come visit him."

"The why didn't you say so?!" Hinata's voice was rising dangerously.

"It didn't come up in conversation." Kageyama quickly intervened, "Look, the point is, the people here are lazy asses that will try to get anyone to do their work for them in any way possible. They will pretend they are dying so you can do the dishes for them! You have to hold your boundaries!!"

Hinata let out a huge groan.

"Listen," Hinata said, "I can't rest with the thought that these people might need me. We have to do something."

Kageyama looked at him with a strange expression that appeared to be a mixture of anger and pity. Or just pity. He always looked angry.

"Ok," Kageyama sighed after a moment of thought, "I will help them get rid of the collectors. But you are going to rest here and heal. After that we are leaving. I hate it here."

Hinata nodded and relaxed a little more into the pillows.  
Kageyama stood up.

"I'm going to talk to the mayor about the situation. I'm also going to request no one bothers you. You don't need some dweeb to come in here and grovel at your feet so you can cook his dinner for him."

Hinata nodded again.

"Rest, ok?" He heard Kageyama add before he left the motel.

"Ok..."

*. *. *  
The fire nation had changed drastically since it had allied with Washijo.   
Similar to the town Hinata and Kageyama were currently in, it had been stripped of resources, the people became poor, and many many children had been taken to learn military even at ridiculously young ages. The fire lord was constantly being 'protected' by some person Washijo set on him so he had no ability to retaliate. Any signs of freedom had been demolished.  
At this point, there was only one hero or thought of happiness for the people, and this was Nekoma. Let by the Prince Kuroo, Nekoma was a group of him and his closest friends that played the Robin Hood role.   
They slipped in and out of Washijo's bases, taking back what had been the people's, they vandalized his war ships, they helped free towns one by one, they even broke into military schools and returned the children to their parents.  
Unlike Karasuno, which had been disbanded and destroyed, they were still running free, and unlike Seijo, that lurked in the shadows, waiting to strike, they took action, every opportunity they could to spit in Washijo's eye. For a while, they were Ushijima and Tendou's target.  
However, the arrival of the avatar had bought them some time.  
Before the Ushijima and Tendou could even make it to the fire nation, they had crossed paths with Karasuno and, the avatar. Due to the tornado he had created that day, the two were unable to deliver message of what he looked like.   
However, word from a near by earth village reported the avatar was currently there and Washijo had called a meeting back at Ba Sing Sae with his most trusted team.

Ushijima and Tendou made there way around through a secret, underground tunnel system Washijo had established. It was similar to the mail system of Oma Shu; earth benders controlled massive carts of stone that acted like trains, so his people could get wherever they needed in a shockingly little amount of time. But once again, only his closest members knew of this system.  
Washijo's lair was also underground, underneath the entire city of Ba Sing Sae. Only Ushijima knew how to enter and how to leave.

That evening found Washijo, Ushijima, Tendou, and the rest of Shiratorizawa in Washijo's underground lair, Washijo sitting on a massive stone chair, high above the others.   
Shiratorizawa was Washijo's elite team, the only people he fully trusted; each of them had grown up as his military students. In a way he had practically raised the whole group from childhood.  
The mood was dark; the soft melancholy drip of water filled the backround, the only light from a torch Semi had lit.

"So," Washijo began, the light of the Flames dancing off of his old, decrepit wrinkles ominously, "We have word from a small earth down in the north west that the avatar is currently seeking residence there."

The team looked back up at him, faces stoic, completely still, just as he he trained them to be when they were younger.

"They also report he is accompanied by an intensely talented water bender, but he shouldn't be too much for you two to handle." He nodded at Ushijima and Tendou. 

Tendou sat up a little straighter, the ghost of a smile tracing his lips. Ushijima, however, remained perfectly still.

"They also say he is willing to do anything to help anyone who needs him. This could help us."

Washijo glared down at them all.

"You," he pointed at Semi, "In case the avatar escapes our next attack I'm going to station you at another minor town. You will stay there until you get a message from me. Then you will send out a help signal and lead him into a trap. But that will only be if he can survive our next move."

He then turned to Ushijima and Tendou.

"For now I'm going to send you to that village. Their round of collectors are about to come about. Rather than sending the collectors I'm sending you in. Capture or kill the Avatar. Either will do."

"E-excuse me!" Goshiki spoke. Washijo glared at him. He continued with a gulp.  
"Why would you want to kill the avatar? He'll just be reincarnated."

Washijo paused, "Because then we could find the new avatar and raise him from childhood. We could raise him to fight for us."

"But won't he be reincarnated into a water bending family? We don't have control over the water kingdoms." Shirabu added.

"We don't," Washijo said fairly, but then his face twisted into a grotesque smile, "Yet."

"Matter of fact," Washijo added, leaning down so he could peer into Goshiki's face, "I'm going to send you with Ushijima and Tendou. You suck at earth bending. Ushijima might just be able to get something into that skull head brain of yours."

He sat up again.

"You three will head to the town this evening. Semi, I'm sending you off tomorrow morning. Don't mess this up."

With that he dismissed them all.  
*. *. *

Twilight twinkled as tears of dew fell over the fire nation on that evening. Nekoma was found on the outskirts of a small, poorly treated town, watching, observing. Tons of bags, filled with flour, medicines, foods, money, were piled behind them.  
A shadow passed as Kenma, gentle and light, bounced to the window of a small house on the outskirts. Within a fleeting second he had slipped inside, dropped one of the bags, and darted back out, retreating to a small cove of rocks behind the village.  
Yaku could be seen, rolling passed patrols, chucking a bag through another window in another house, before rolling back, unseen.  
They were like cats, quick, sleek, light footed, hardly making any noise as they slipped past Washijo's men, returning the rightful property to the civilians. Their actions where seamless, calculated, two at a time entering, retreating, while the others stayed back and watched their backs.   
Kuroo and Lev then slipped in, silently, Kuroo watching Lev carefully as he hopped behind walls and over fences.   
Lev was the newest member of their team.  
After breaking into one of Washijo's military schools and setting the kids free, Lev had come up to him, reporting that he had been orphaned and asking to join Nekoma.  
Kuroo had agreed, but he was starting to doubt if that was a good idea. Lev, for no other way to put it, was a disaster. Madly confident, but with hardly any skills to make up for it; no one had let him go on any raids. They just let him stay back with Shibiyama. Seeing as this town was pathetically small, Kuroo had agreed to let him come this time however. But he had very little faith in the guy.  
Though, to Kuroo's surprise, despite his abominable size, Lev was highly graceful.  
As Kuroo darted over building tops he could see Lev doing the same, quiet on his feet, gentle. He saw Lev swing down and cast a bag through an open window. Perfectly.  
But then he ruined everything by giving a triumphant whoop.  
And everyone's cover was blown.   
Kuroo took the split second of shock that the guards had at hearing the noise to throw the remaining bags into the last few houses before bounding forward to go protect Lev who now had about fifteen soldiers running at him. As he watched, Lev, with a loud and unnecessary "hyaaaa!' Sound began shooting fire at their heads.

"You idiot! Aim for their feet! Shooting at their heads won't do anything!" Kuroo yelled. 

He dropped to the floor and spun around, fire shooting out of his own feet, causing several soldiers to lose balance and fall over. He then grabbed Lev's wrists and ran with him towards the rest of the team. Unfortunately several soldiers came around and blocked their way out. They also turned around to find several more blocking the way back.  
They were surrounded.

"Look what you've done!" Kuroo snapped, putting his back to Lev's, eyes darting around, looking for some way to escape.  
But then a huge shock of light burst through, straight into the soldiers eyes, making them shout and back up, covering their faces with their hands.   
It was blinding, even Kuroo and Lev couldn't see anything but this massive growing, white light. Kuroo could feel Lev bumbling around him, he reached out and grabbed the others wrist when someone else grabbed onto his other hand.   
He let the other hand pull him and Lev through the light and out of the village. In a moment, they could see again, and we're looking back on the soldiers, fumbling around in this massive concentration of light.

"Thanks Kenma," Kuroo said with a cheeky grin, nodding to the person who had pulled him and Lev out.

Kenma was a light bender.  
He could separate the glow from the flames to cause illusions, move shadows differently, or just blind others by shooting light into their eyes. He was the first fire bender to ever learn to do this, and, he was their secret weapon.   
Need a quick get away? Get Kenma to confuse everyone with optical illusions.   
Surrounded? Get Kenma to blind everyone but himself and lead you out. He was most of the reason Nekoma hadn't been destroyed yet, even though Washijo had thrown nearly everything he had at them.

Kenma kept the light glowing until the entire team was far away, letting the soldiers finally see, only to realize their prey was gone.

*. *. *

A couple days had passed in the small earth village up north. Though Hinata was convinced he was entirely better, save for his arm, Kageyama wouldn't let him leave the motel room. He often stayed in there with Hinata, making sure no one came in and he never left, the two often pondering where they would go next and what they would do.

"After you learn water bending we're gonna have to find you and earth and a fire teacher." Kageyama mused. It was about midday and the two were pouring over the map of the four nations.

"Ooo! I used to be really good friends with a fire bender named Kenma, he could teach me!"

"You know the fire nation is Washijo's now right? We can't just strut in there looking for someone who you haven't seen in years."

"Actually, I wonder what happened to him." Hinata said, "He used to live in the palace which is probably full of Washijo's people now..."

"I thought only royalty lived in the castle?"

"Normally yes. But he was really good friends with the prince who convinced his dad to let him live there."

"Didn't the prince start Nekoma? Do you think Kenma started it with him?"

"Probably," Hinata said with a small chuckle, "Kenma would follow him off the edge of the earth. Heck, he had a huge crush on the prince when he was younger. He used to talk to me about it."   
Hinata looked out the window, "I hope he is ok...."

"Ok then what about earth." Kageyama cut across.

"Kageyama you plan to much! You're thinking to far ahead. I haven't even started learning water bending yet!"

"Yeah well it's never too early to start worrying about the future!"

"Be mindful of the future, but live in the moment! Worry about what is going on right now rather than what's going to happen in who knows how long!"

And then they were back to bickering. They could hardly make it over ten minutes without resolving to argument. It was cut short, however, when there was a knock on the door when a villager came, reporting the collectors were scheduled to arrive shortly.  
Kageyama left, forcefully telling Hinata to rest as he did.  
Hinata stuck his tongue out after him before lying back down.

He felt restless, like he had to do something but couldn't. He almost felt obligated to protect this village, he was the avatar for goodness sake! And he was just sitting in this dumb motel waiting for Kageyama to do it.   
Kageyama.   
He must just want the glory or something, making Hinata stay back under the pretense of 'taking care of him'.  
Always wanting something for his stupid self.

Hinata's leg twitched, he really wanted to bust outside and fight the collectors on his own. In his minds eye he could almost see Kageyama's shocked face as he imagined single handedly defeating them, Kageyama being impressed, being shown that Hinata was better than him. Oh, if only that could actually happen.  
The sounds of battle had started outside, he could here screams, crashes of rocks. More screams.   
Man, it was a lot of screaming for just a few collectors. He supposed they might have been more powerful than he had anticipated. He heard the crackle of fire and suddenly intense heat took over.   
Strange. He had thought the collectors were only earth benders.  
But then, there was a boom.  
An explosion just after a soft 'click click' sound. And Hinata recognized it. The heat, the explosions, it all made sense. He froze as realization came over him.  
Ushijima and Tendou were here.

As if on cue, the door burst open and Kageyama ran in, ashes over his face that was pulled into a terrified expression. He didn't even wait to explain, he just grabbed their supplies, picked Hinata up bridal style, and dashed outside.  
It was a nightmare out there.   
It was so hot it was difficult to breathe as lava spilled out of cracks in the street. Ashes rained from above, and violent explosions shot off all around them.   
Everything was on fire, villagers ran amok, some trying to chase them, others darting for safety.   
But then he saw Ushijima. The man was speeding behind them, moving the earth under his feet to increase his speed, he was gaining on them quickly.   
Hinata, with a great exhale, sent a huge bout of wind to slow him down, but Ushijima retaliated by raising stones in a triangle form so it blew around him.   
He then kicked the ground and the earth beneath Kageyama and Hinata collapsed. They fell, tumbled, supplies and all into a little pit.   
Ushijima came over and looked down on them.

"I would say well played but you did a terrible job fighting me." Ushijima said, peering into their faces.  
Tendou then walked over.

"OOOO well done Wakatoshi!" He said, he then put his arms up in a way as though he was advertising Ushijima, "Miracle boy Wakatoshi!"

Ushijima utterly ignored this. 

"Should we kill them?" He said, though even as he said it his face twisted slightly, he scowled more, as if he was disgusted at the thought. Which surprised Hinata as Ushijima had certainly killed before.

"Yeah probably," Tendou said. "Pity. You two would have been helpful on Washijo's side."

Ushijima backed up.  
"I'll let you do it."

"Right-E-oh."

But these words came out as almost muffled to Hinata. He felt like something inside of him was fading, drifting away. Out of fear he grasped onto Kageyama's robes as the world began to swim. And then another awareness became present. Sharp and keen it took over like a wave, his eyes began to glow, and Hinata entered the avatar state once again.

Before Tendou had a chance to blow them up Hinata blasted him back, with an insanely powerful wind blast, he formed a tornado that caught Tendou, spinning him round and round.   
Ushijima pulled the earth up around his ankles to hold him in place, but Tendou was tossed like a rag doll, that is, until Ushijima reached up and grabbed his wrist when he flew near him.   
Similar to that last time Hinata had gone into the avatar state, Ushijima created a hole in the ground, sealed the top, and hid there with Tendou, out of harm’s way.   
Hinata then began moving through the village, suspended in the air on some giant air scooter, he flew around, guiding his hand over the destruction.   
Lava sunk back into the earth, flames flickered to death, cracks in the earth sewed together as he moved atop of them.  
Hinata then returned to where Kageyama was still stuck in the hole. He raised him eerily out of it and onto the air and began to fly with him, far away from the town, far away from Ushijima and Tendou, they were going.  
Going.  
Gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Count on Lev to fuck shit up am i rite  
> Also someone give Kagehina a break from Ushiten heheh


	6. The Birds and the Bison

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinata and Kageyama make it to the scene where Kageyama had last faced off against Ushijima and Tendou. There they meet some interesting people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To the people who have left sweet comments so far, uhm, I'd die for you <3

Hinata came too in a sparse forest filled with tall swaying blades of grass. Not unlike the last place he had woken up in after the avatar state, this had some pine trees, with winding branches above him where a few small birds chirped. He could recall flying out of the village with Kageyama, he had gone quite far and a long ways away before the avatar state wore off and it was here that he had collapsed. From the purple and pink hues in the sky, it appeared to be twilight.   
Hinata sat up. Kageyama was sitting relatively close to him, and appeared to be portioning out some of the food they had got from the village. From the looks of it most of the supplies Kageyama had forced out of the mayor were still with them.

"Good morning." Kageyama said, not looking up.

"It's twilight," Hinata said, rubbing his head, "Where are we?"

"Yeah but you just woke up. And to answer your question we are here." He jabbed a finger at the map in the northern earth kingdom region. 

"Woah! That's even closer to where you and the other water benders were attacked!"

"Yeah I know," Kageyama said, "You cut our walking time in half." 

He then paused, and looked sheepishly up at Hinata.  
"Thank you, by the way." He said, "For....you know...saving my life...and not leaving me behind..."

"Huh? Oh, um... You're welcome?" Hinata said, "I couldn't really control what I was doing but you're welcome all the same."

Kageyama handed I'm a piece of bread.  
"How's your arm?"

"Broken."

"No shit. I meant how does it feel."

"Broken."

Kageyama face palmed, Hinata just giggled at him. 

"We'll be having a good night’s sleep and then be off by morning." Kageyama continued.

"Why do you always make the plans?" Hinata retorted, biting into his bread.

"Cuz your too stupid too."

"Hey! I am not!"

"Yeah, what was the one plan you made? Waltzing into a town, announcing you were the avatar, causing them to rat you out and get us nearly killed? Great work strategist."

"Yeah well, at least I'm not as stuck up and mean as you." He said, crossing his arms.

"Yeah well being stuck up and mean got us the food we are eating now, the bandages on your arm, and a map so we aren't completely and utterly lost for once. There is a reason I act this way."

"Act this way'? I'm pretty sure you just are that way Kageyama!"

Kageyama glared at him.  
"If I was truly mean I wouldn't have just given you food, I wouldn't have stuck by your sorry ass this long, I wouldn't have rescued you when we were attacked back at Karasuno, I wouldn't have gotten these supplies so you could be well fed, I wouldn't have taken care of you after that fight, I wouldn't have-"

"Yeah yeah I get it!" Hinata said, waving his arms to shut the other up, "But what about all the mean things you have done? Remember how snooty you were to me back at the camp? Remember how you were so rude to those poor people in the village? Remember how..."  
He paused.   
"-how you are just a big jerk all the time!"

"How about how mean you are because you are just determined to hate me because I'm a better bender than you." Kageyama said.

There was a silence. Then-

"I don't hate you because you're a better bender than me! You're not better than me! I'm the avatar! I hate you because you are rude! Rude, rude, rude!!"

Kageyama looked up from his bread, which he had been staring at for most of this conversation. He looked angry, angrier than usual, his eyes piercing, dangerous.

"Fine!" He snapped, "Be that way! But get to bed soon because we are leaving early tomorrow!"

Kageyama then stood up, grabbed some blankets they had also got from the village and made himself a small bed far away from the other.  
Hinata proceeded to do the same, while quoting him in a mock voice and glaring at him over his shoulder. Neither slept that well that night.

Morning dawned and Kageyama had gathered all their stuff into a sack, save for the map and their breakfast portions. After kicking Hinata awake the two had eaten a bit and then began a walk east. The trees grew denser, and stuff such as moss began growing on their winding trunks. It became moist, the view overhead muffled by cascades of greenery and branches that blocked out the sunlight. Bugs and wildlife became more present the farther into the forest the ventured, and the light more and more sparse. 

After a good half hour Kageyama began pointing things out, such as a tree he remembered hiding under after the attack, or else a rock that he recalled sleeping on the day after.   
In about another forty five minutes or so they came across quite the apparition. Here it appeared some kind of unnatural tidal wave had occurred, there were knocked down trees, grass ripped out violently by the roots, streak marks in the molded dirt.

"And here are the first signs of battle." Kageyama said. 

The farther in they went, the worse it looked. Despite that it was a while ago, the place was still trashed beyond belief. There were scorched and fallen trees, holes that could've only been formed by Tendou's eerie power, more signs that massive waves had gone through. There were cracks in the earth, branches scattered everywhere so it was nearly impossible to walk. There was even at one point a rock that appeared to be covered in blood. Finally, they came to what was once a small clearing, where the scorches were even worse, and small bits of what looked like cooled lava covered the area.

"Here we are." Kageyama said. He looked somewhat pained being back here, his eyebrows more scrunched, mouth twisted into a more present frown. 

Hinata bounced around, looking at the damage.

"This is where I escaped." Kageyama stated, pointing at a little area near the back, "Akaashi told me to run...so I did. I didn't see most of it."

"You just left?"

"Basically. Yeah."

"Wait! Look here!" Hinata said. He was standing over a bit of cooled lava, that had a foot print in it, as if someone had stepped over it when it was still movable.

"A foot print? Classic." Kageyama said, but he cringed seeing what it was formed in. "It must've burned to step there."

Stooping low, he started to inspect it.

"Couldn't have been mine, I left the other way. It's too small to have been Oikawa's, that jerk has monster feet. And it's exiting the area? As if running away? Ushijima and Tendou Arrived from over there, so that means it has to be-"

"Akaashi's. Yeah, I know. Couldn't you come to that conclusion without the large unnecessary monologue before?"

"Yes, but to be sure, it is important to limit it all other variables!"

"Oh whatever, you and your ‘variables’. Let's just go in the direction it's pointing."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kageyama look at his feet.   
Hinata just huffed and kept walking. 

More signs of Akaashi fighting became present, they could see signs of Ushijima and Tendou following him, as cracks in the earth, massive rocks, and more scorched and exploded areas seemed to follow the direction they had deemed the water bender had gone. There were more washed out areas, more fallen trees, until they came upon a clearing.   
It was not, evidentially, a natural clearing. It appeared to have been completely carved by water, an area where everything had been washed away, destroyed. And after this, any signs of pursuit vanished.

"Well it looks like he survived at the least." Hinata said.

At this conclusion, Kageyama looked incredibly relieved.

"But where could he have gone from here?" Hinata asked.

"Knowing him, probably the quickest way out of the forest so he could see better. So that way."

They began trudging outwards, occasionally stopping for a drink of water or a meal. They could tell it was getting darker, as they farther they walked, the more they could see the sky. Finally, the trees became sparse again, fading into swaying hills that led to huge, sheering cliffs overlooking the ocean.  
The splash of waves far below them could be heard as the foamy water galloped across the rocks, the smell of salt and seaweed grew stronger and more pungent. As they came closer to the cliffs they could see, a ways out into the ocean, and air temple, high and far away atop a massive climbing spire of stone.

"Could he have gone to the air temple?" Kageyama wondered out loud.  
Hinata made an 'I dunno' sort of noise.

"Or he could have gone to that village we were in before." Kageyama said, "DAMNIT! Why didn't we ask them if any water benders had passed through?!"   
He looked desperate, almost mad.

"Hey," Hinata said, "I know you are scared you might have lost him. I know you're upset. But we'll worry about it in the morning ok? It's time to get some sleep."

Kageyama had looked down at his feet, it appeared a few tears had formed in the corners of his eye.  
"He just meant so much to me," Kageyama said, "I just want to know he is ok...."

Though Hinata wasn't sure why, he walked forward and put a comforting hand on Kageyama's back.

*. *. *  
The air temple, farthest north of all the others, placed off the coast of the earth kingdom, surrounded by the rowdy sea. Protected, separate, it was its own little world, and, Bokuto's home. Bokuto was and excitable air bender, he preferred to fly over the seas on his bison and explore rather than sit at home and meditate, and, as it was mentioned earlier, this was how he had found both Akaashi and, later, Natsu.   
Akaashi had gone to the temple with him after the water benders had been attacked, and lived there ever since. Though he could not fly to get from place to place, he had developed bungee cord like strings and used it to bounce and launch his way around. 

Several weeks later, Bokuto had been taking Akaashi on a bison ride over the earth kingdom, and the two had spotted and rescued Natsu, Hinata's younger sister, though the two were not aware of that fact. They took her in and the three became almost a family, Bokuto kept her interested, entertained her (the two often played harmless pranks on Akaashi), and Akaashi was her mentor, made sure she was fed, but also messed around with her when they could. It was peaceful, a nice dynamic, all three of them were very happy.

But then, something that happened shattered that happy dream land, when Natsu, very recently, went missing. An air bison was also gone, so they could only assume she had run away.  
Due to this, that crisp morning found Akaashi and Bokuto crossing the skies on Bokuto's bison named Owl.   
Owl's fur rippled in the wind, the breeze was cool, and whipped the two's hair up in strange fashions.

"NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATSSUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" Bokuto howled.

"She couldn't have gone far," Akaashi mused, leaning over the edge of the saddle to get a clearer view, "She hardly knows how to fly one of these. Oh gosh, I really hope she didn't crash-"

"NAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTSSSSSUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!" 

The two were nearing the cliff edges.

"Bokuto! Look! There!"   
The closer to the edge they got, the more of what appeared to be a figure sleeping on the ground became clear. And, even from up here, their fiery orange hair was defiantly noticeable.

"Hey hey! That has to be her! Who else has hair like that!" Bokuto literally jumped up and down on the top of Owl's head, who groaned angrily at him.

"I mean, probably a lot of people. But if it is, where is the bison?"

They spiraled to the ground, Owl was an expert flier, and they reached the small camp in a very short amount of time. Bokuto did not hesitate to leap off and grab the orange haired person in a hug, despite the fact that they seemed to be asleep.

"Oh Natsu, I missed you so so much- I made you owl shaped cakes but you weren't here and I was worried-Akaashi lost his shit when you were gone too-but I missed you so so much and-"

"Ouch! Who the- what!"  
The person leapt up out of Bokuto's grab.

"Who the heck are you?!" Closer up, it became apparent this was a much older boy. Though surprisingly, he looked very similar to Natsu. He had backed up defensively and had his arms up in a defense position.

"Oh wait," Bokuto appeared to wilt, "You’re not Natsu."

"Yeah no kiddin- wait! How do you know my sister? Is she alive?!"

"Your sister?" Akaashi had jumped off of the bison now and was looking quizzically at Hinata, "Was your sister about this tall, have the same colored hair as you and is an incurable prankster?"

"Yes....?"

"Holy owl butt!" Bokuto suddenly shouted. Everyone looked at him.   
"You're the avatar, aren't you?"

"Um, yeah?" Hinata said.

"And you're Natsu's older brother!"

"How do you know my sister and if you hurt her I swear I will-"

"We found her lost in the woods and took her to the temple to heal her up. We've cared for her ever since. I promise she has not been harmed by us." Akaashi cut in.

"We should probably introduce ourselves. I am Akaashi, this is Bokuto." He continued, "We are from the Air Temple. We are looking for your sister because she appeared to have run away."

"Well that certainly cleared stuff up!" Bokuto said.

"No it didn't!" Hinata said, "Why did she run away!? What happened to her? And why is your name Akaashi?"

Akaashi took a moment to think.  
"I think she ran away to look for you," he said after a short while, "We had heard that the avatar was running free and she asked me what the avatar was. I told her the avatar was the only person who could bend more than one element. I assume she knew you could bend more than one and left to look for you now that she knew you were alive."

There was a silence. Bokuto whistled.

"Gee Akaashi, you are so smart!"

"As to why my name is Akaashi, I was born with that name. Why do you ask?"

Hinata shook his head in confusion.  
"Ok, so just to make this clear, my sister is alive, you two took care of her, and now she is missing and you are looking for her. You happen to be just the person Kageyama and I were looking for-"

"Kageyama?" Akaashi asked, "As in Kageyama Tobio?"

"Yeah, acquaintance of mine." He said waving an airy hand, "He's probably out getting food because he doesn't think we have enough. Anyway, Kageyama wanted you to teach me water bending, and now we've found you so that is good. But now we need to find my sister-"

He was interrupted by a crash, as Kageyama returned and promptly dropped everything he had collected.

"Akaashi!?!"

*. *. *

A solid half hour later, the confusion was cleared up. Akaashi and Kageyama had an almost tearful reunion, Bokuto and Hinata had discussed what they would do when they reached the temple during this, but now they were each seated on Owl, flying overhead, desperately searching for Natsu. 

"Question," Kageyama said, "Why on earth is this Bison named Owl?"

Akaashi shrugged.  
"Bokuto-San named him. I wanted to call him something far more practical but his heart was set on the name." 

Owl groaned as if on cue.

"And what a name it is! You like it, don't you old boy? Don't you?" Bokuto said, rubbing Owl's head with his foot. Owl groaned, this one filled with mock despair.

"See? He loves it!"

Akaashi just shook his head, "If you say so," he muttered under his breath. However, he had a small, fond smile on his face when he looked back at Bokuto.  
Kageyama watched him curiously.

"And you two are just friends?" Kageyama asked Akaashi quietly.

"Um...yes?"

"Like, you've never....uh..dated?"

Akaashi looked purely shocked for the time span of about four seconds before he passed it off with a small chuckle, "No, in fact we have not. Why do you ask?"

"Oh." Kageyama said, "You just, erm, seem to like him more than you like...most people..."

"As in most people, I assume you mean the only other person you've commonly seen me around, which is Oikawa. Yes, I like him far more than I like Oikawa." Akaashi said, "He's much more...loyal, and sweet, he has such a big, gentle heart. He's so talented, and people often fail to see that in him.”

"Who's Oikawa?" Bokuto called from the top of Owl's head.

Akaashi jumped.  
"Did you just hear that whole conversation?!" He cried.

"No, just the part about Oikawa. Isn't he that water bender you used to travel with who you constantly call an asshole? "

Akaashi visibly relaxed.  
"Yes," he called back, "Yes, that's him."

Kageyama smirked.  
"You're blushing," he whispered in Akaashi's ear.

"Oh shut it!" Akaashi playfully slapped his arm.

Hinata, however, through this whole conversation, was leaning over the edge of the saddle, silent, face stoic, concernedly looking out for any signs that his sister may have passed through. After a moment Akaashi slipped over next to him.

"Are you alright?"

"No," Hinata said, "But I hope she is."

"Listen. I'm sure we will find her, alright? She used to play hide and seek with us a lot, and Bokuto was an expert at finding her. I have no doubt that he won't fail us this time."

Hinata nodded.   
"I just....." He started, "I just thought I lost her once. I don't want to lose her again..."

It was Akaashi's turn to nod.  
"Loss. One of the greatest burdens of man. It can make you go crazy, act irrationally, you never quite no what it will do. If it helps," he continued, "I thought I had lost Kageyama for a long time. My old comrade, close friend, the only sane person I had when we were both stuck with Oikawa." 

Hinata looked up curiously at him.  
"Who's Oikawa? I know he was the other water bender you guys were a group with, but neither of you talk about him that fondly."

"Don't get me wrong, he is a good guy," Akaashi said, "But no, neither of us remember him that fondly. He was certainly powerful and helpful to us, but he was very tormented on the inside. Highly confused, insecure, unstable, irrational. He didn't treat Kageyama very well." Akaashi looked over at Kageyama, who was gazing at the skies in search.  
"It was actually....quite hard with him," the water bender continued, "I had to be the peace element, to keep the two from flat out killing each other. Any second I was gone disaster reined. Oikawa isn't very ethical. He often would taunt and hurt Kageyama verbally, I even recall him trying to hit Kageyama once. It had an effect on him. Kageyama became hardened, far more, uh, grouchy. I think he even picked up some of Oikawa's insecurities. But I remember when he was a little kid. He was so sweet."

Hinata nodded. It made a lot of sense.

"Oikawa was far kinder as a kid too," Akaashi said, "It's a real pity he became the way he did."

The next few minutes passed in silence, the only sounds the wish of the wind and the occasional moan from Owl.   
But then it was broken by Kageyama exclaiming.  
"Oh wait!" He said, looking at Akaashi, "Didn't you say Natsu ran away to find Hinata? Then she surely must've gone where we were heard to have been last!"

"Which is where?" Akaashi said.

"That infernal village we used to go to with Oikawa to see Iwaizumi."

"Really? There? Why on earth would you have gone there?"

Kageyama shrugged, "His fault," he pointed at Hinata.

Hinata didn't retort, he just sat up straight, looking far more alive than he had this entire trip.

"Heck yeah let's go find her!!" Bokuto whooped, "Hey hey hey!"  
He then had Owl do a loop-de-loop, which caused everyone else to scream.

It took a while to get there, Hinata had underestimated how quickly he had traveled when he had been in the avatar state. They flew over valleys and weaving streams, passed dots of greenery, and swaying fields. The farther they went, the more desertification became present, the ground becoming sandy until they saw the decrepit town creeping over the horizon. And if it had looked bad before, it was nothing to how it looked now. There was flat out nothing left. All the buildings had been burned to ashes, streams of lava were still present, not yet cooled, sending sweltering heat even up into the sky so they could feel it brush through their hair. It was completely void of civilians. There were spiked rocks crossing the whole area, and they could even see the hole Ushijima had dropped them in.  
And sure enough, on the outskirts, a sky bison was parked, and as they circled lower they could see Natsu kneeling on her knees before the destruction. She appeared to be crying.

"NATSU!" Hinata yelled, leaning as far out as he could over the edge, "NATSU IM HERE!!"

He saw her look up. Her face lit up.

"Shoyo!" She yelled, jumping up and down, "Shoyo! You're ok!"

They landed the bison and Hinata launched himself over to her, lifting her into the air and spinning her around, both crying, but both with massive smiles on their faces, exclaiming things such as 'you're alive!' And 'I missed you'.

On the outlines, Akaashi, Bokuto, and Kageyama stood, Bokuto and Akaashi with fond smiles, but Kageyama just seemed sad, he had looked down at his feet, feeling almost envious of the other two. Akaashi reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. This seemed to help a bit.

The siblings were now hugging each other and rocking back and forth, sticking their legs out almost like a star fish whenever they changed direction. Natsu peered over her brother's shoulder. 

"Hey dad's!" She called, "I missed you too!" 

Bokuto flat out started sobbing. Kageyama stared at him.  
"What are you doing?"

"This is the first time she ever c-called me dad!" Bokuto howled through sobs, "I missed you too sweety!!" 

Akaashi had also started sniffing at this. Kageyama backed up.  
He knew it was supposed to be a happy, wholesome moment, but he felt strangely sad, left out. Not included. As he watched, the others engaged in a massive group hug, and there he was, watching it, not a part.  
He had turned to go back to the bison, but then Akaashi reached out and grabbed him, including him in the hug pile.  
Akaashi.   
The only one who ever cared for him.  
The only one who ever stood up for him.   
As he flopped awkwardly on the outside of the hug, he appreciated Akaashi's care, but he really wished he could find it in other people.  
He really wished Hinata cared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sips boba* You know I had to throw some Bokuaka in there.  
> Also! Wholesome! Hinata! Siblings! Natsu is severely underrated


End file.
